Beacon's VOAJ (Voyage)
by Madninja324
Summary: Follow Onyx Blanch during his time at Beacon (OC x Ruby) (OC x Weiss) and (OC x OC) Arkos, NoRen and Black Sun planned
1. Chapter 1

(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY)

Chapter one: the rose

Onyx Blanch entered the store From Dust Till Dawn, looking for some more Dust rounds, the elderly shopkeeper looked up.

"Can I help you, young man?"

Onyx smiled, it was his lucky night, not only had he found Dust shop open at ten thirty at night, the owner seemed like a nice man. "Yes, sir, I'd like one hundred nine millimeter Dust rounds, in two fifty round belts for loading into a machine gun, just white Dust please."

"Certainly, if you'd wait over by the magazine section, I'll gather your order, that will be fifty Lien." Onyx handed over the money, then he walked over to the magazine section, a girl wearing a red hooded cloak stood with her back to him, she didn't react when he walked up behind her to check out the magazines, Onyx was a tall boy, six five, well muscled, with wavy black hair down to his jawline, and sky blue eyes, he wore a black t-shirt with no ornamentation, under a dark grey jacket with his symbol on the back, a clenched fist made of black stone, around his wrists were two thick bracelets that extended into his weapons, a pair of gauntlets, one white, the other black, named Rise and Fall respectively. Onyx was reading a back issue of Hunter Tales, when the shop's bell sounded. A seemingly bored voice spoke.

"Do you know how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" Onyx heard the unmistakable whine of a Dust pistol priming. Onyx tensed, he looked over at the girl, who was reading an issue of weapons weekly, and had what was clearly some kind of collapsed weapon clipped to her back, _perfect_, Onyx thought, _she's probably a combat student, like me_. Onyx nudged the girl, who looked up at him with big silver eyes, putting his finger to his lips he indicated silence, then motioned for her to take off her headphones, when she did, Onyx began filling her in quietly.

"This shop is being robbed, can you use that weapon you've got strapped to your back?" The girl nodded.

"Good, my Semblance is Spatial Awareness, I can tell there are seven robbers, three with swords, three with guns, and one carrying what I think is a cane, the guy with the cane seems to be in charge, and there's a thug headed our way right now, in three, two..."

"Alright, kids, put your hands where I can see them."

It was a thug with a sword, Onyx smiled. "_Gladly."_ He took a step to the side, then he turned and stepped toward the thug in the same motion, punching the black clad thief in the face hard enough to send him smashing into the front wall, next to the window. Onyx extended Rise and Fall into their active forms, the girl took the compacted weapon off her back as a gun toting thug pointed his pistol at the two teens.

"Freeze!" Neither teen froze, on the contrary both of them leapt forward and kicked the man, their momentum took all three through the big shop window, and the compact weapon the girl was holding unfolded into a six foot long scythe, Onyx was impressed as she spun the deadly instrument around and planted the blade in the ground like it weighed nothing. The thieves looked out the door, as the cane wielding leader, whose orange hair was swept down over one of his jade green eyes, spoke to his henchmen like they were stupid.

"Well? Get them!"

The four remaining henchmen ran forward, Onyx flicked the selector on Rise to wind Dust, the gold trimmed white gauntlet glowed green as he struck the first thug with a right jab, a blast of wind exploded from the gauntlet and sent the henchman flying, the scythe wielding girl lifted herself off the ground, spun herself on the shaft of her scythe, and slammed a double booted kick into the second thug's face, Onyx jump kicked the third thug before taking him down with a left cross from the silver trimmed black gauntlet, Fall, to add force to the blow Onyx set Fall to electric Dust and triggered the machine gun he'd built into Fall, a four round burst fired at point bank range sent the thug flying, sparks running up and down his body, his limbs twitching uncontrollably.

"Well, you were worth every cent... Truly you were." The leader said, sarcastically to his fallen hirelings. "Well, kiddos, I think we can all say this was an eventful evening." He dropped his cigar, and crushed it beneath the tip of his cane before pointing it at the girl, a crosshairs popped up from the cane's tip, revealing a gun barrel at the end of the cane. "But I'm afraid _this_ is where we part ways." The white clad thief pulled the trigger, and with a whistling noise a projectile that looked remarkably like a flare flew towards the scythe girl, Onyx tackled her out of the way and the flare exploded several feet behind where she had been standing, Onyx stood and offered the girl his hand, she accepted his help getting up.

"He's going up the ladder of that building over there." Onyx pointed out the retreating thief to his companion.

The girl turned to the shopkeeper. "Are you okay if we go after him?"

The old man nodded, then he threw a bundle to Onyx, the bullets he'd ordered, he tucked them into his belt pouch. "Thank you, sir." Both young warriors ran to the bottom of the building, Onyx set both his gauntlets to wind Dust then punched straight down with Rise, and the blast of wind sent him flying upward, firing Fall on full auto kept him moving upward until he reached the roof, the girl had pointed the top of her scythe at the ground, and fired a gun built into the scythe, the recoil from the shot was enough to launch her up to the roof beside Onyx, who ejected the spent ammo belt from Fall, and replaced it with one of the new ones.

"Hey!" The girl yelled at the thief.

"Persistent." The criminal grumbled.

A Bullhead transport plane rose up from behind the building and the cane wielder jumped inside, turning, the orange haired man held up a red Dust crystal, which he threw at the teens' feet "End of the line, kids!" Then he fired at the crystal. Onyx threw himself between the girl and the impending explosion, but it never came, a ring of violet Glyphs blocked the flare before it hit the crystal. A blonde woman wearing glasses, a white blouse, black skirt, and a tattered black and purple cape, carrying a riding crop, stood in front of the teens, a wave of the crop later and a dozen streaks of purple light impacted the Bullhead, causing it to jolt, and making the thief stagger over to the cockpit, apparently he took the controls, because a woman walked calmly into the back of the transport, the blond woman glowed purple for a moment, before firing a bolt of energy into the sky, dark clouds formed, and with another wave of the riding crop ice shards began to fall onto the Bullhead, the woman in the Bullhead shot a fireball at the three on the roof, but the blond woman blocked the blast, which splattered onto the roof, the chunks of roof that were hit began to glow brighter, the blond woman, who was clearly a Huntress, backflipped out of the way just in time, the spot where she'd stood exploded, the Huntress waved her riding crop in a circle debris from the explosion began to glow purple and gather into a floating spear of rubble, which the Huntress sent flying towards her opponent, the enemy fired several blasts that shattered the rubble spear, the Huntress quickly reformed it but the pilot turned the Bullhead enough to deflect the rubble spear off the top of the machine, the Huntress changed the rubble into three smaller spears, the woman in the Bullhead crossed her arms, the sigils on her dress glowed bright gold, and three rings of Glyphs appeared around the Bullhead, the three rubble spears were turned to ash in a burst of gold light, the scythe wielding girl collapsed her weapon into a rifle, and fired several shots, Onyx aimed Fall at the woman and opened fire as well, a gold circle of glyphs appeared to block all the incoming shots, then the woman waved her hand and several Glyphs appeared on the roof, the Huntress swept her riding crop behind her, both teens were telekinetically pushed away, as the Huntress herself rolled forward, out of the way of half a dozen explosions. When she looked up, the Bullhead was flying away. The silver eyed scythe wielder turned to the Huntress.

"You're a Huntress? Can I have your autograph?" Onyx facepalmed.

_Fifteen minutes later, the police station's interview room_.

"I hope you know your actions tonight will not be taken lightly you two. You put yourselves, and others in grave danger." The blond Huntress was pacing back and forth in front of the two teens, the girl, who had short red-tinted black hair, and wore a red trimmed black combat dress under her red hooded cape, black tights, and black and red boots, a silver rose was clipped to her belt, along with a clip pouch, and several loose rounds of ammo, shouted.

"They started it!"

Onyx cut in. "It's true."

"If it were up to me you both would be sent home with a pat on the back, and a slap on the wrist!" the riding crop smacked down between the two young warriors, the girl flinched with a cute yelp, Onyx just blinked in surprise. The Huntress resumed talking.

"But... There's someone who would like to talk to the two of you."

A man with silver hair, in a black suit and green vest limped in on a cane, he held a steaming mug in the hand with the cane, and a plate of cookies in the other, he seemed to be focused mostly of the girl.

"Ruby Rose, and Onyx Blanch." To Ruby he said, almost offhandedly. "You... Have silver eyes." Ruby looked confused, Onyx had no idea where the man, who seemed familiar somehow, was going with this. "Tell me, you two, where did you learn to do this?" The man held up a tablet computer, with a recording of the fight with the thugs playing on it. _Where did he get that?_ Onyx thought.

Ruby answered the question first. "S-signal Academy."

"And I'm a Sanctum student, I came to Vale to try to track down a relative." That was true, he was hunting his uncle, who'd killed both of his parents two years ago.

"Signal taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed, Miss Rose? And Sanctum gave you, Mr. Blanch, this kind of skill?"

Onyx decided to just nod, Ruby however spoke up.

"I learned from one teacher in particular." Then she began inhaling the cookies. Onyx watched her in a kind of fascinated awe.

The silver haired man wasn't finished speaking. "It's just that I've only ever seen one scythe wielder of this caliber before... A dusty old crow."

Ruby tried to speak through a mouthful of cookie, before swallowing, and responding again. "That's my uncle, Qrow, I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing, but now I'm all like Hooowaaaa, Witchaaa!" She made karate-like motions, which caused Onyx to suppress a snort of laughter.

"So I've noticed,and what is an adorable girl, such as yourself, doing at a school designed to train warriors?"

"Well, I want to become a Huntress."

"You want to slay monsters?"

"Yeah! I only have two more years left at Signal, then I'm going to apply to Beacon." This would make her fifteen, a year younger than Onyx.

"You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it! I mean the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and cool and really, _gosh_, you know!" Ruby's voice got steadily higher and more excited until she was basically squealing out the last words.

"Do you know who I am?" The silver haired man asked.

"You're Professor Ozpin, the headmaster at Beacon." _That _was how Onyx had seen him before, the man was nearly a celebrity among those studying to become Huntsmen and Huntresses.

"You want to come to my school?" Ozpin asked Ruby.

"More than anything!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Well, okay. And don't think I've forgotten you Mr. Blanch, I'm aware that you have one year left at Sanctum, and you most likely planned to apply to Haven, but what if I were to give you the same offer I just gave Miss Rose, I would be happy to have someone of your skill as a student in this year's class, do you accept?"

"Yes."

* * *

><p>(Author's note: for those of you who read it, I'll still be working on Strengthening ReLaTioNs, I'm just running low on ideas, so I decided to shift my focus for a bit, then come back when I get something good. Also, I've tentatively designed my OC team to be similar to Team RWBY, with Onyx being comparable to Blake and Ruby, with a dark past that drives him, not being entirely comfortable around others, and a strong drive to help others with his combat skills, though he does have a fascination with weapons, not as much as Ruby, but still pretty strong. Yes Rise and Fall are based off of Ember Celica, though Yang's and Onyx's fighting styles are on opposite sides of the same martial art, Yang, with her frightening strength and power increasing Semblance, is more likely to be aggressive, while Onyx's Spatial Awareness Semblance, makes him almost impossible to sneak up on, and when he uses it with his eyes closed he can actually perceive his surroundings more effectively than he could with his eyes open, though he's limited to thirty feet, making it easier for him to dodge incoming attacks, so his style is more defensive.)<p>

Character Profile: Onyx Blanch

Species: Human

Sex: Male

Age: 16

Eye: sky blue

Hair: Black

Height: 6'5''

Weight: 200lbs

Aura: Grey

Semblance: Spatial Awareness (While active Onyx gets every detail of the surrounding thirty feet as pure information, not through any sensory medium, such as sight, in fact the Semblance becomes _more_ effective when Onyx closes his eyes, as his sight actually interferes with his Semblance.)

Weapons: Rise and Fall, a pair of mechanical gauntlets structurally similar to Ember Celica, with several differences, the first being color, while Ember Celica is gold, Rise is white with gold trimming, and Fall is black with silver trimming, second is functions, Ember Celica has a pair of red Dust shotguns built into the gauntlets, but Rise contains several Dust crystals on a rotating selector, that charges the gauntlet with elemental energy depending on the crystal selected a bit like Myrtenaster, while Fall has a miniature machine gun built into it, the gauntlet holds a maximum of fifty Dust rounds, as well a rotating selector of Dust crystals identical to Rise's, that charges the ammunition with elemental energy, there is a trigger in the form of a button on Onyx's palm that is used to fire the machine gun.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two: arrival at Beacon**

**Ruby and Onyx boarded the VTOL Airship together, and they met up with Ruby's sister, Yang Xiao Long.**

**"****Oooh! I can't believe my baby sister is coming to Beacon with me! And you've found a boyfriend too, nice going little sis!"**

**"****He's/She's not my Boyfriend/Girlfriend!" Ruby and Onyx corrected at the same time.**

**"****Awww, you two looked so cute together, too." Yang looked nothing like her sister, she was two inches taller, with long blond hair, lilac eyes, and many more curves than her younger sibling, she also wore a pair of large gold bracelets that were nearly identical to the collapsed gauntlets on Onyx's own wrists.**

**"****So, what's your name?"**

**"****Onyx Blanch."**

**"****Onyx helped me fight off those goons who were robbing the shop, he was really good, he uses gauntlets like yours, but one of them charges itself with Dust energy, and the other has a machine gun, and he can charge the Dust rounds with energy just like with his other gauntlet!" Onyx extended his gauntlets.**

**"****Yep, these are Rise and Fall, my wonder twins. I built these guys myself, and they are the best weapons I've ever made."**

**"****Wow! You like to make weapons too?" Ruby was practically bouncing up and down in excitement.**

**Onyx could feel his face go red, he wasn't used to someone being so excited about something he did. "Yeah, it's mostly just a hobby, but I sometimes get a good idea, and I just have to build it, it's no big deal, really."**

**"****You even have similar interests! You are made for each other!" Yang teased**

**"****For the last time, Onyx and I aren't together, we're just friends!"**

**A news broadcast began on a holoscreen. The picture was a mugshot of the orange haired criminal from the Dust store.**

**"****The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities, anyone with information on his whereabouts should call the Vale Police Department." Onyx retracted Rise and Fall, before pointing to the mugshot.**

**"****That's the guy who was leading the robbery we stopped, apparently his name is Roman Torchwick." Onyx said to the girls, who had been too busy bickering to notice, they stopped and turned to the screen, which was now showing a crowd of Faunas holding signs, one of which read "WE ARE NOT ANIMALS!" the story was about the White Fang disrupting a peaceful Faunus civil rights rally, the image of the Huntress from the rooftop fight replaced the news.**

**"****Hello, and welcome to Beacon!" The hologram said.**

**"****Who's that?" Yang asked.**

**"****My name is Glynda Goodwitch." The projection said, almost as if the hologram of the woman was answering Yang's question.**

**"****Oh."**

**"****You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." The hologram vanished, and several students gasped at the view, Ruby and Yang looked out at a large building down below.**

**"****Look, we can see Signal from up here, it looks like home's not too far after all." Ruby said.**

**"****Beacon's our home now." Yang pointed out.**

**Just then Onyx was pushed out of the way by a blond boy, nearly as tall as Onyx, who was making a dash for the nearest trash can.**

**"****I guess the view's not for everyone." Yang commented.**

**"****Oh gross! Yang, you have puke on your shoe!"**

**Onyx and Ruby backed away from Yang with expressions of disgust on their faces, while Yang began freaking out.**

**"****Gross gross gross gross!"**

**By the time Yang managed to wipe the puke off her boot they were landing.**

**When the door opened the blond vomiter ran to the trash can outside and proceeded to do his best to expel his intestines out through his mouth, everyone else, however was captivated by the sight of Beacon, the main building was one of the most impressive pieces of architecture Onyx had ever seen, and he'd grown up in Mistral, a Kingdom that was famous for it's architecture, it resembled a castle with numerous smaller buildings around it.**

**"****The view from Vale's got nothing on this!" Yang said. Onyx agreed wholeheartedly.**

**Ruby was distracted from the view by the variety of weapons the new students all held.**

**"****Ooh, Sis that kid's got a collapsable staff, and she's got a fire sword!" She was about to dash off to fangirl over more weapons, when Yang grabbed her by the hood and pulled her back.**

**"****Easy there little sister. They're just weapons!"**

**"****Just weapons? They're an extension of ourselves, they're a part of us! ****_They're so cool!_****"**

**"****She's right, Yang."**

**"****Well why can't the two of you swoon over your own weapons, aren't you happy with them?"**

**"****Of course I'm happy with Crescent Rose! I just like seeing new ones, it's like meeting new people, but better."**

**"****Yeah, whether or not we're happy with our weapons isn't the point Yang, you can tell alot about a person by looking at their weapons, as most people's fighting styles match their personality to some degree."**

**"****Well, you two should go meet some of those new people."**

**"****But... Why do I need to have new friends when I have you and Onyx?"**

**"****Well... My friends are here now, gotta go catch up! 'Kay see ya, bye!" Yang dashed off with a crowd of people. Leaving Ruby to spin confusedly in place.**

**"Wait, where are you going?! Are we supposed to go to our dorms? Where are our dorms? Do we have dorms? I don't know what I'm doing..." Onyx quickly caught her before she fell backwards.**

**"****Watch it you two!" Two angry voices yelled, one male one female.**

**The voices belonged to a white haired girl in a white combat dress like Ruby's and a red lined white bolero jacket, and a young man in an impeccable gold suit, crisp white shirt, gold pants, and a pale yellow tie, with golden blond hair, a rapier hung from the girl's belt, and the boy held an ornate cane, with a sword grip topped by a red Dust crystal.**

**"****What are you doing?"**

**"****Uh, sorry." Ruby apologized.**

**"****Sorry? Do you have any idea what could have happened if your boyfriend hadn't caught you?"**

**"****He's not my boyfriend!"**

**"****It doesn't matter!" The gold clad boy yelled at Onyx. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't caught her, but, you nearly stepped on my arsenal box! That box contains dozens of single use weapons, most of them explosive! Your friend's clumsiness nearly cost us our lives!"**

**"****And these trunks are full of Dust! Congratulations little girl, you nearly blew us all to pieces! Aren't you both a little too young to be attending Beacon? This isn't your ordinary combat school you know, it's not just sparring and practice, we're here to fight monsters, so... Watch where you're going!"**

**"****I said I was sorry ****_Princess_****! And you can't possibly blame Onyx for nearly stepping on your stupid box, he was a bit busy catching me to look where he was going!" Ruby snapped, aiming the last part at the boy in gold.**

**"****It's heiress actually." A calm voice corrected. "And heir: Weiss Schnee and Julius Gold, heirs to the top two businesses in the world: the Schnee Dust Company, and Gold Industries."**

**"****Finally! Some respect!" Both heirs cried.**

**The girl who'd spoken had long black hair, gold eyes, and a black bow, she was reading a leather bound book, which she looked up from to deliver her parting shot.**

**"****Both of these companies are known for their controversial labor forces and questionable business partners."**

**"****What- how dare- the nerve!" Weiss Schnee spluttered.**

**"****Why that... Who dares..." Julius Gold was reduced to a similar state of apoplexy. They stalked off in different directions, leaving their valets to handle their luggage.**

**"****I guess we're not the only ones having a rough day, huh?"**

**"****Apparently not."**

**"****Are we interrupting a moment or something? 'Cause we can always come back later."**

**The girl's voice startled them.**

**"****What? No, we're not together! And we weren't having a moment." Onyx said, embarrassed.**

**The girl, whose purple hair and green eyes stood out from coffee colored skin, and who had some kind of large silver bracers on her arms a pair of weights on chains hung from the bracers, the chains fed into the bracers themselves, suggesting that they were much longer, but the majority of their length was wrapped around the girl's arms.**

**"****It certainly doesn't look like that's the case."**

**Onyx and Ruby both turned red as they realized for the first time that Onyx hadn't let go of Ruby's shoulders since he'd stopped her from falling.**

**"****Anyway, my name's Violet Lightwood, and this here." Reaching behind her, Violet produced the blond boy who'd tossed his lunch on the airship. "Is Jaune. What're your names?"**

**"****Onyx Blanch."**

**"****Ruby Rose. Wait, aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?"**

**Jaune looked embarrassed. "Yeah..."**

**"****...All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common thing than people let on." Jaune insisted, the four of them had been wandering around for ten minutes, and Jaune and Ruby had been talking the entire time.**

**"****I'm sorry, Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind."**

**"****Well if I call you lovebird?"**

**"****I told you! Onyx and I aren't together!"**

**"****Well my name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!" At this the other three burst out laughing, before Violet asked: "Do they? It certainly doesn't work on me."**

**"****They will! I-I mean I hope they will, my Mom always says... Never mind." Jaune turned red with embarrassment.**

**A short silence passed before Ruby pulled Crescent Rose off her back, and unfolded it. "So... I got this thing!"**

**"****Whoa! Is that a scythe?" Jaune asked nervously.**

**"****It's also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle!"**

**"****A wha...?"**

**"****It's also a gun." Ruby supplied, cocking it helpfully.**

**"****Cool! I've got these! Inferno and Blizzard, my retractable, magnet propelled battle chains, the weights have a Dust crystal in them, fire for Inferno, and ice for Blizzard" Violet showed off her weapons by whipping Inferno out and blowing up a sizable rock ten feet away, then retracting the chain.**

**"****These are my gauntlets, Rise and Fall." Onyx extended the weapons and displayed them for Jaune and Violet to see.**

**"****Nice!" Violet said appreciatively.**

**"****So... What do they do?" Jaune asked.**

**"****They can both enhance themselves using the rotating selector of Dust crystals in each gauntlet, but while Rise enhances the gauntlet itself, Fall's enhancements go to the bullets for the mini machine gun built into it."**

**Violet turned to Jaune. "What do you have?"**

**Jaune looked embarrassed, he drew a plain, sturdy longsword. "I've got a sword." Ruby oohed, Onyx could understand why, the simple sword had it's own kind of elegance, nothing fancy, but it had clearly seen many battles, and it was still deadly sharp and sturdy.**

**"****I've got a shield too." He pulled his sheath from his belt, and with a click it expanded into a simple kite shield with two golden crescents painted onto the face..**

**"****So.. what do they do?" Ruby asked.**

**"****Well, the shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it, I can just... Put it away." Jaune finished a bit lamely.**

**"****But wouldn't it weigh the same?" Ruby asked, Jaune hung his head.**

**"****Yeah, it does."**

**"****Well I like it, not everyone has an appreciation for the classics these days." Ruby said honestly.**

**"Yeah... The classics." Jaune muttered.**

**"Well ****I'm sort of a dork when it comes to weapons, maybe I went a little overboard when I was designing Crescent Rose."**

**"****Wait... You made that!?" Jaune asked incredulously.**

**"****Of course! All students at Signal forged their own weapons, it's the same at Sanctum, where Onyx is from, didn't you make yours?"**

**"Nope! I inherited these from my Dad when he was killed in action." Violet said, Ruby and Onyx both looked sympathetic, Onyx could tell that Ruby knew what ****losing a parent**** was like, just like him, however, in Onyx's case, it was both of them. Jaune broke the silence.**

**"****These have been in my family for generations, my great great grandfather used them to fight in the War."**

**"****That sword is one hundred years old? What kind of metal did they use to make it? Most swords only last for about forty years of consistent use." Onyx asked curiously.**

**"****I don't know, you're saying that there's something special about my sword?"**

**"****Well, yeah, at minimum it's made of a ****_really _****good metal that just isn't in common use anymore, does it have a name?"**

**"****Crocea Mors, my Dad says it means 'Yellow Death'. Umm guys?"**

**"****Yeah?"**

**"****Do you know where we're going?"**

**Ruby shook her head. "Onyx and I were following you two."**

**"****And I was following Violet."**

**Violet looked uncomfortable. "I was just wandering around until one of you pointed out the place we're supposed to be."**

**Jaune laughed nervously. "I don't suppose there's a directory, maybe a food court? Some kind of recognizable landmark?"**

**The others laughed.**

**"Is that a no?" Jaune asked dejectedly.**

**"****That's a no." Ruby replied.**

* * *

><p><strong>(Author's note: now I've introduced the V, the O and the J in VOAJ, Violet Lightwood is meant to be based on a crossover between Yang and Ruby, Yang's personality, Ruby's Unusual weapon preference and leadership, Julius Gold is, of course meant to be based off of Weiss, and the O is Onyx of course. Read, enjoy, and review)<strong>

**Character Bio: Violet Lightwood**

**Age: 17**

**Sex: female**

**Species: Human**

**Height: 5'8''**

**Weight: 120lbs**

**Hair: purple**

**Eyes: Green**

**Skin: Brown**

**Aura: Purple**

**Semblance: Polarity**

**Weapons: Inferno and Blizzard: two ten foot long weighted chains stored in a pair of specially designed bracers, Inferno holds a fire Dust crystal inside the weight at the end of the chain, whenever the weight hits something it causes an explosion, Blizzard holds an ice Dust crystal in it's weight, and it freezes anything it hits, Violet uses her Polarity Semblance to manipulate her chains on the battlefield**

* * *

><p><strong>Character Bio: Julius Gold<strong>

**Age: 17**

**Sex: male**

**Species: Human**

**Height: 5'11''**

**Weight: 167lbs**

**Hair: golden blond**

**Eyes: Brown**

**Aura: Gold**

**Semblance: Glyphs**

**Weapon: The Gentleman's Guardian: a sword cane, with a fire Dust crystal set in the pommel that causes the blade to burst into flames, the cane sheath is steel encased in wood, and is sturdy enough to be used as a second weapon, or as a defensive item**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three: orientation

The four teens arrived at the auditorium at a run, though only Jaune was out of breath when they stopped.

"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" Ruby broke off from the group.

"Oh, hey, I gotta go! See you guys after the ceremony!"

"See ya, Red!" Violet said.

"Bye!" The boys said together. Onyx saw someone else in the crowd he recognized.

"Alex! Hey, Alex! Over here!" Onyx's old friend looked over and his crimson eyes widened in surprise. Alexander "Alex" Garnet walked through the crowd, his red metal staff, Speech strapped to his back, when he wanted it to it would separate into two long barrelled pistols named Whisper and Shout. Alex, with his pale skin, red eyes and hair, black and red clothing, and towering six foot nine stature was generally considered intimidating, until you got to know him, he was a pretty nice guy, a demon on the battlefield, and an excellent student, he'd been in the year ahead of Onyx at Sanctum, and he was literally Onyx's only friend until he'd met Ruby.

"Onyx! What're you doing here man! I thought you still had a year left at Sanctum?"

"Apparently Professor Ozpin disagrees with you. He talked to me after I stopped a Dust store robbery with a Signal student named Ruby, we were both offered early admission into Beacon, there she is over there, the little one in the red cape." Onyx pointed Ruby out.

"Huh. Kinda small don't you think?"

Onyx smiled. "Don't let size deceive you, she uses a six foot long giant scythe that turns into a sniper rifle, and she's probably as good as you are with it."

Alex did a double take. "You don't say."

"Ahem!" Violet coughed, reminding Onyx that he had been rude.

"Sorry guys! Violet and Jaune, meet Alexander Garnet, don't ever call him Alexander though, he goes by Alex. Ow!" Alex elbowed Onyx in the side. "Continuing on from before my best friend tried to stab me to death with his elbow, Alex, these are Jaune Arc, and Violet Lightwood."

"Nice to meet you." Alex said.

"Likewise." Jaune and Violet responded.

"Hey, Clumsy Oaf! Are you going to apologize for earlier or not?" Julius Gold had stomped up to Onyx.

"I have a name, you know, it's Onyx Blanch."

"Well then, _mr. Blanch_ are you or are you not going to apologize for nearly killing us by setting off my entire collection of explosives?"

"You do realize that an explosive device needs to be armed before it can explode, right? And, annoying as you are, you're presumably smart enough not to carry around a box full of armed explosives, so the only thing in danger of exploding was Weiss' suitcase of Dust, which I saved when I caught Ruby, I do apologize for putting your devices at risk, as stepping on your box may have damaged some of them, but _we_ were never in danger from what you were carrying, and that's the most you'll get out of me, though if you do receive damage to one of your weapons in the future, I'd be perfectly willing to repair it, for a reasonable price of course."

"And why would I want to take your services, when the technicians at my Father's company can do the same thing for free?"

"Because I can just take the damaged object, directly from you, then return it when my work is done, no wasted time while you wait for the mail, I'm a weaponsmith Mr. Gold, just ask Alex, I was the top student in Sanctum's weapon's forging class, in any of the years, despite the fact that I'm only sixteen and was in my third year at Sanctum before Professor Ozpin offered me early admission."

"It's true, this guy has made some seriously awesome weapons, and for the most part he makes better than factory quality weapons for fun." Alex chipped in.

"I'll... Consider it." Julius Gold conceded.

All talking abruptly stopped as the Headmaster stepped up to the microphone.

"I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Ozpin stepped back, and Glynda stepped up to the mic.

"Students will gather in the ballroom tonight, tomorrow initiation begins, be ready."

The crowd began filing out of the auditorium, Julius Gold walked off, as did Jaune, while Ruby and Yang walked over.

"Hey, Onyx howsabout you introduce us to your friends?"

"Well, Ruby already knows you, but Violet Lightwood, Yang Xiao Long. Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose, meet Alex Garnet, my best friend. There, everyone is introduced."

"Nice to meet you, Yang and Ruby."

"Yeah, what Big Red said, Sorry Ruby, you are now bumped down to Little Red."

"Nice to meet you Alex. Is that a staff? Can I see it?! Please!"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, Ruby's an even bigger weapon nerd than I am."

Alex smiled down at the younger, and much smaller, girl. "Of course you can see it." Alex slung the staff down from his back, the six foot shaft of red metal. "This is Speech, and these..." Alex separated the staff into it's dual pistol forms. "Are Whisper and Shout."

Ruby's eyes went misty, then she began interrogating Alex about how he got the pistols to straighten out and connect into the staff form, how he'd reinforced the barrels to make them viable for use as the ends of a staff, how he handled the recoil from the massive pistols, and even how he'd managed to get the metal itself to turn red. Alex answered her questions the same way he'd answered Onyx's similar inquiry three years ago, calmly, patiently and honestly. Ruby had just made one of the most steadfast and loyal friends she would ever have, that certainly had been the case for him as well, when Alex had suggested creating a pair of battle gauntlets, to a skinny first year student who had been bullied most of the time at school, as a way, he said, to train his body to become as strong as the mind it held. Alex had been right, making Rise and Fall, and the rigorous training he had gone through to master them, and his own body, had indeed made Onyx strong enough that the bullying stopped, and the red eyed giant had been there, supporting his friend the entire time.

Four hours later Onyx and Ruby were arguing the merits of Dust crystals over powdered Dust, Onyx on the side of crystals, Ruby arguing for powder.

"Dust crystals can be used repetitively, powder needs to be replaced after only a few uses, depending on how much there is."

"Yeah, but powdered Dust is more effective, it's effects are more intense, and easier to manipulate, also, powdered Dust is what we use in our ammunition, Dust crystals need some kind of medium to focus their energy, powdered Dust doesn't need that."

"True, but crystals are much less likely to blow up in your face, unlike powdered Dust, which can be set off by a hard sneeze."

"Powdered Dust is the easiest form to combine with other kinds of powdered Dust."

"Crystal Dust is less expensive in the long run, one crystal lasts for half a year, powdered Dust needs to be replaced constantly."

"Crystal mining is extremely dangerous."

"And how many people a year do you think are injured or killed in factory accidents involving refining, purifying, and powdering Dust? Hm?"

"Fewer than are lost in cave-ins, Dust explosions, and bad air pockets per year."

"Okay, you two, why don't we just call this a draw, before things get ugly?" Alex suggested. The debaters reluctantly agreed, and they began to talk about different weapons they'd made, or helped make, they both enjoyed the topic, and it lasted them until it was time to go into the ballroom to sleep. Onyx and Alex set up their sleeping bags near Ruby and Yang. The blond girl flopped down next to her sister.

"It's like a biiig slumber party!" Yang declared.

"I don't think Dad would approve of all the boys though." Ruby commented, not looking up from the letter she was writing.

"I know I do!" Yang purred, checking out some of the guys who were wrestling for bed spaces, Onyx and Alex had had no trouble finding a spot, when Alex had told the first guy that he would have to wrestle with _him_ rather than Onyx, and Alex Garnet wasn't somebody who a sane person would consider wrestling with if they had a choice, not that Onyx was a smart choice either, he was six feet five inches of muscle, he was a brawler, and he fought dirty.

"So, what's that?" Yang asked, indicating the letter.

"A letter to the gang back at Signal, I promised to tell them about my first day at Beacon, and how things are going."

"Aww! That's so cuuute! Onyx! Isn't that cute?"

"Leave me out of this Yang!"

Ruby's pillow hit Yang in the face.

"Shut up! I didn't get to take my friends with me, it's weird not knowing anyone here!" Onyx cleared his throat pointedly.

"What about Onyx, Alex, Violet, and Jaune? They're all nice. There you go! Plus four friends! That's a four hundred percent increase!"

"I'm pretty sure Weiss and Julius count as negative friends."

There's no such thing as negative friends, you just made four friends and two enemies!" Ruby's second pillow, shaped like a dog head, hit Yang in the face.

Yang's voice turned serious. "Look, it's only been one day, you have friends all around you, you just haven't met them yet."

The sound of a match being struck caught the attention of the four teens.

"That girl." Ruby muttered, she was looking at the black haired girl who was lighting a candelabra, it was the bow wearing girl who'd insulted Weiss Schnee and Julius Gold.

"Do you know her?" Yang asked.

"Not really, she saw what happened this morning, but left before either of us could say anything." Ruby answered.

"Well, now's your chance!"

"Come on, Alex, this should be good." Onyx said to his friend.

The four teens, Ruby being dragged by her sister, walked over to the bow wearer, who was reading the same leather bound book as earlier.

"Hellooooo!" Yang sang out. "I believe the three of you may know each other!" Indicating Ruby and Onyx.

"Aren't you two the ones who were arguing with Weiss Schnee and Julius Gold?"

"Uh, yeah! My name's Ruby, and he's Onyx."

"Okay." The girl returned to her book.

"So... What's your name?" Yang asked.

"Blake." Blake sighed exasperatedly.

"Well, Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister! The big guy is our friend Alex!"

"Pleased to meet you." Alex offered.

"Likewise, now if you don't mind, I was reading."

"Yeah, this girl's a lost cause." Yang said.

"What's it about?" Ruby asked.

"What?" Asked Blake, confused.

"Your book, does it have a name?" Ruby persisted.

"It's about a man with two souls, each one fighting for control over his body."

"That sounds... Real lovely." Yang commented, clearly not thrilled by the description, Onyx thought it sounded interesting.

Ruby ignored her sister. "I love books, Yang used to read to me every night before bed, stories of heroes and monsters, they're part of the reason I want to become a Huntress."

"Why's that, hoping you'll have a happy ending?" Blake asked.

"I'm hoping we all will, as a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books, someone who fought for what was right, and who protected those who couldn't protect themselves."

"That's very ambitious for a child, but unfortunately the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."

"Yeah, Ruby, sometimes the hardest thing in the world is trying to figure out what 'right' means." Onyx agreed. Blake looked at him inquisitively.

"That's why we're here, to make things better." Ruby insisted.

Yang grabbed her sister in a bear hug. "I'm so proud of my baby sister!" Onyx and Alex laughed at the sight of the two girls scuffling.

"What in the world is going on here? Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?" Weiss Schnee asked, clearly ticked off.

"Oh, not you again!" Ruby and Yang exclaimed together.

"Guys, she's right, people are trying to sleep."

"Oh so now you're on my side!"

"Girls! Why don't we all just go to bed? There's no need for more arguments which will only wake others up, agreed?" Alex mediated.

Weiss, Ruby and Yang agreed, and Blake blew out her candles, soon the lights turned off, and everyone went to their sleeping bags.

* * *

><p>(Author's note: Alex is the only member of VOAJ who isn't based off of at least one member of RWBY, I just thought that having his personality being the exact opposite of his appearance would be cool. Read, enjoy (or not), and please review, thank you!)<p>

Character bio: Alexander (Alex) Garnet

Species: Human

Sex: Male

Age: 17

Height: 6'9''

Weight: 250lbs

Eyes: Red

Hair: Crimson

Aura: Red

Semblance: Berserker (this is one of the few Semblances that isn't completely in it's user's control, though it can be activated and deactivated at will, Alex's anger levels control how easy it is to return to normal before exhausting himself, the angrier he gets the harder it is. While active Alex's aura explodes out of him, increasing his strength, speed, and stamina by a huge amount, however, the longer he's in this state the angrier he gets.)

Weapon(s): Speech/Whisper and Shout, Speech is a fairly simple six foot long metal staff, however it separates into a pair of two foot long pistols named Whisper and Shout, the clips are extended


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter four: initiation**

**"****Wake up, lazy butt!" A girl's voice woke Onyx up, ****_ugh, doesn't she know that she's waking everyone up? Wait, everyone, shit! _****Alex groaned, Onyx made sure he had plenty of space to wake up, Alex in the morning wasn't safe to be around until he got coffee, the girl, who was still chattering away to her friend, a black haired boy in a green tailcoat, zipped around the room, Onyx just barely managed to stop her before she approached Alex.**

**"****Woah, there, you ****_really _****don't want to take another step forward, Alex is a pretty nice guy under normal circumstances, but he is absolutely awful to be near in the morning until after his first cup of coffee."**

**The girl, who had short orange hair, and wore a lot of pink and white, along with a perpetual smile. "Okay! Sorry for almost running into you big guy!" She called to Alex, he grunted, which was positively friendly for him this early in the morning.**

**The grinning ginger turned to Onyx. "Hi, I'm Nora! What's your name?"**

**"****I'm Onyx, that's Alex."**

**"****Onyx and Alex, hey that almost rhymed!" Nora zipped off again, just as her green clad friend reached Onyx.**

**"****Nora! Wait for me, please! I'm sorry if Nora caused any trouble, I'm Lie Ren, but you can just call me Ren." The haggard boy said.**

**"****Oh, she was fine, almost put her life in danger by approaching my friend, but I stopped her, my name's Onyx, he's Alex, sorry if he doesn't say anything, he's not very friendly until he gets his first cup of coffee, and speaking of that, I should probably lead him to the cafeteria, before he causes problems." Onyx led his grumpy best friend through the halls to the cafeteria, where Alex made a beeline for the coffee dispenser. Onyx filled his tray with bacon, eggs and pancakes, then he got a tray for Alex, which he set next to his, for his friend to eat when it was safe to be around him again, they ate breakfast in silence. After breakfast they packed up their sleeping bags,and headed into the locker room where they met up with Ruby and Yang, whose lockers were right next to Onyx and Alex's.**

**"****So.. you boys ready for initiation?" Yang asked.**

**Alex took Whisper and Shout out of his locker, then he put them together to create Speech, which didn't fit in the locker, and strap his staff to his back, Onyx slid Rise and Fall onto his wrists.**

**"****Now, we're ready."**

**At that moment Ren and Nora walked past, Nora was bouncing on the balls of her feet.**

**"****I wonder what those two are so worked up about?" Ruby asked.**

**"****I met them this morning, and evidently, Nora is always worked up, Ren is much calmer. Nora's the girl, Ren is the guy in green."**

**"****You seem awfully chipper this morning Ruby." Yang commented.**

**"****Yup! No more small talk or getting-to-know-you stuff, today, I get to let my sweetheart do the talking!" Ruby took Crescent Rose out of her locker and stroked it lovingly.**

**"****Well, remember Ruby, you're not the only person going through initiation, if you want to grow up, you're going to have to meet new people and learn to work together." Yang pointed out.**

**"****Ugh, you sound like ****_Dad_****, first, what does meeting new people have to do with fighting? And second, I don't any help growing up, ****_I drink milk!_****"**

**"****I honestly don't know how to respond to that last bit." Onyx said, earning him a silver eyed death glare.**

**"****Well what about when we form teams?" Yang asked.**

**"****Well, I'll just be on your team, or Onyx's team."**

**"****As much as I'd like to be your teammate, I'm pretty sure teams are four people each." Onyx pointed out.**

**"****Well that's perfect, we've got four people right here, you, me, Yang and Alex."**

**Yang started playing with her hair. "Well... Why don't you try being on someone else's team?"**

**"****My Dearest Sister Yang, are you implying that YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE ON THE SAME TEAM AS ME?!"**

**"****What?! No! Of course I do! I just thought... Maybe it would help you break out of your shell."**

**"****What the! I don't need to break out of my shell, that's absolutely ridiculous!"**

**Yang and Ruby argued for a couple minutes, before a KACHINK drew everyone's attention. Onyx saw a familiar red and gold spear pinning Jaune to a pillar by his hood, Pyrrha Nikos the top student at Sanctum, and four time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament retrieved her spear as she walked past Jaune, telling him it was nice to meet him, which was just like Pyrrha, she was always polite and friendly, even if she'd just pinned you to a stone pillar, unless, of course, she actively didn't like someone.**

**The foursome walked over to Jaune, who looked confused and dejected, and considering the conversation Onyx had overheard between him and Weiss, Onyx wasn't surprised.**

**"****Having some trouble there, Ladykiller?" Yang teased.**

**"****I don't get what I did wrong, Dad said all girls look for is confidence."**

**Alex helped Jaune up. "There's a difference between confidence and cockiness, you were being cocky, all you need to do is be yourself, besides, I don't think Weiss likes you anyway, and calling her 'Snow Angel' didn't help."**

**Ten minutes later a dozen students were lined up at the edge of Beacon Cliff, they were all standing on metal plates, a large tent had been set up for the rest of the initiates who were waiting their turns.**

**Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch stood in front of the waiting teenagers. Ozpin addressed the waiting warriors.**

**"****For years, you have trained to become warriors, today, your abilities will be tested in the Emerald Forest."**

**Professor Goodwitch stepped forward. "I'm sure by now you've all heard the rumors about teams, well allow me to put an end to your confusion, each of you will be given teammates... ****_Today._****"**

**Onyx could hear Ruby whimper, ****_sorry Ruby, it sounds like we aren't going to be able to choose who we end up with._**

**"****These teammates will be with you for the remainder of your time here at Beacon, so it would be in your best interests to be paired with someone with whom you can work well... That being said, the first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your partner for the next four years." Ozpin said.**

**"****WHAT?!" Ruby yelped.**

**"****Once you've paired up, make your way to the northern end of the forest, you will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, you will meet opposition along the way, do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you ****_will_****die, each pair must choose a relic, then bring that relic back to the cliffs, you will guard that relic, as well as your standing, and we'll grade you appropriately, are there any questions?"**

**Jaune raised his hand. "Yeah... Ah, Sir?"**

**"****Good! Now, take your positions!" Alex separated Speech into Whisper and Shout, Onyx extended Rise and Fall and raised his fists. They were the first two to be launched, the spring loaded metal plates sent them rocketing into the air. Onyx set both gauntlets to wind Dust, and when he was fifty feet from the ground he punched downward with Rise, and fired Fall on full auto at the ground, slowing his fall enough to land on his feet with nothing more than a jolt. Onyx replaced the empty ammo belt in Fall and activated his Semblance, it was draining to use for an extended period, but it was fine as long as each use only lasted about five minutes. A group of Beowulves had a boy with a sword and what seemed to be a stick surrounded. Setting his gauntlets to fire Dust, Onyx ran towards the fight, as he ran he used his Semblance to make sure he didn't trip over anything.**

**A burst of small fireballs from Fall announced his presence, before Onyx leapt over a log, and punched a Beowulf in the snout with Rise, the monster's head burst into flames, a kick to the left knee of the Beowulf next to it halted it's attack, and tripped it, three bullets to the back of the head stopped it from getting up. Not daring to stop moving as there were approximately thirty Beowulves around him, Onyx closed with a third monster, punching it mercilessly, a blow to the neck finished it, and Onyx threw the corpse into the crowd of it's packmates, this was the only provocation the rest needed to charge him. A small smile beginning to form, Onyx closed his eyes, the sheer amount of information that poured into his head was almost staggering once the interference of visual stimuli vanished, but Onyx didn't allow it to overwhelm him, he struck. A Beowulf tried to sneak up behind him, Onyx ducked it's claw, then punched it in the gut with Fall, a quick burst of unmodified ammunition tore through the monster like tissue paper, even striking the creature directly behind it. A roundhouse kick stopped the monster aiming for Onyx's back cold, a flurry of punches took down a pair of monsters directly in front of Onyx before he aimed Fall behind him and shot the beowulf he'd just kicked, jumping over a claw strike, Onyx kneed a monster in the snout, as it reeled back Onyx set Rise to ice and punched the air in front of the Beowulf, an icicle the size of a short sword impaled the creature, a quick circle kick knocked a claw away from his face, and a straight right encased the attacking Beowulf's chest in ice, before it fell to three Dust rounds to the head, setting Rise to fire Onyx punched into the open mouth of a Beowulf who was trying to bite him, the creature's head exploded. The sword fighter had fought his way to Onyx's side.**

**"****Are your eyes closed for a particular reason, or do you just not want to be my partner?" Julius Gold asked.**

**"****It has nothing to do with you, my eyes are closed to maximize the effectiveness of my Semblance: Spatial Awareness."**

**"****Ah, I presume you made those gauntlets?"**

**"****Just like every other combat school student, yeah I made my own weapons."**

**"****If they're indicative of your work, I may just take you up on that offer, quite impressive."**

**"****Thank you, but we have monsters to kill, we'll talk business later."**

**"****Agreed." Between the two fighters the thirty Beowulves had been whittled down to eleven, and Onyx's Semblance was starting to cause strain, so he deactivated it and opened his eyes.**

**"****Ready? Go!" Onyx yelled, side by side the two Huntsmen in training charged. Julius' sword burst into flames, and Onyx dropped into a roll between the legs of the first monster, who was impaled by Julius, Onyx rolled into a handstand and a kick to a Beowulf's throat, the monster gagged as Onyx flipped to his feet, setting Fall to electricity he sprayed the three to his left with lightning bullets, a shoulder rush at the one he'd kicked in the throat sent it toppling into the one behind it, flicking Rise to fire Onyx shot a fist sized fireball at the tangled monsters, the resulting explosion immolated them both, while Julius finished the three electrocuted monsters, Fall was nearly out of ammo, but Onyx charged anyway, Julius swiped his blade through the air, four star shaped Glyphs flew from the blade, three striking a single target, the small explosions tore holes in the creature, killing it, the fourth hit a monster in the leg, and Onyx punched the monster in the face with Fall, unaided, the force of the blow stunned the monster, Rise, set to wind smashed a monster into a tree on the other side of the clearing, they could hear it's back break from where they were, a kick to the stunned monster's neck snapped it, as Julius ran one of the remaining three through the chest, while two four round bursts from Fall used up the last of the ammo in the current belt and killed the last two monsters, ejecting the empty belt Onyx loaded a new one as Julius cleaned the blood off of his sword. The headache started immediately.**

**"****What's wrong?"**

**"****The reason I rarely use my Semblance with my eyes closed is because the human brain isn't meant to handle that much information for too long, so when I stop it leaves me with a massive headache."**

**"****Ah, well luckily for you I brought along some Gold Industries' Painkillers, we have a fairly successful medical branch, though our main products are civilian and military vehicles and technology."**

**"****Just give me the damn pill." Onyx dry swallowed the small white tablet, sure enough the pain began to decrease almost immediately.**

**"****Dang that's fast acting."**

**"****It should be, it was designed for Hunters and soldiers in the field."**

**"****Well, let's head north."**

**_Elsewhere in the forest._**

**Violet walked next to her partner, Alex, the red eyed giant was calm and capable, as he'd demonstrated when he'd shot two Ursi to death with his huge pistols when they'd met, she could have taken them, but she was grateful for his assistance.**

**"****So, where do ya think this temple is?"**

**"****The Headmaster said north, and I think I saw something half a mile to the north of where I landed, we should head there."**

**"****Alright big guy, lead the way." Violet gestured for Alex to take the lead, which he did.**

**Unfortunately the monsters in the forest had other ideas, a hiss and a rustle of plants was the only warning they got before a King Taijitu, black head leading, sprang into the clearing, for a huge double ended snake, the King Taijitu could be remarkably stealthy when it wanted to be, Inferno lashed out, striking the side of the black head, the explosion knocked it off course, but unfortunately didn't do much else, both heads, white and black, hissed at Violet, who extended Blizzard with a smirk.**

**"****Didn't like that did ya, you snakey freak!" Violet sent Blizzard whipping toward the white head, and Inferno at the black head, both heads backed off, as Alex charged into battle with Speech in his hands, a quick twirl and Alex swung the staff straight up, holding it like a sword, Speech smacked into the white head's chin hard enough to knock the huge head upwards, another twirl and he jabbed the tip at the black head's eye to discourage a strike, Violet retracted her chains then she began circling the snake, trying to find a weakness while Alex held the attention of both heads, Violet found what she was looking for.**

**"****Alex, take the black head, leave the white one to me!" The staff wielder nodded, spun his staff, dodged a strike from the black head, and glowing briefly red, his expression changing from calm and collected, to furious in an instant, he stabbed his staff eighty percent of it's length ****_through the snake monster's skull. _****While Alex was pulling Speech out of the shattered skull, the white head hissed in rage, and got a mouthful of Inferno for it's trouble, the weighted chain smashed through the delicate bones in the roof of it's mouth, and the resulting explosion destroyed a large section of the creature's brain. Violet retracted the bloody chain as Alex worked Speech free, they cleaned their weapons then continued on their way.**

**_Back with Onyx and Julius._**

**"****I must have been insane when I agreed to this plan!" Julius yelled while hanging on for dear life.**

**"****Probably!" Onyx agreed.**

**"****That makes you doubly insane for suggesting it in the first place!"**

**"****Absolutely!" The black haired brawler yelled over the rush of the wind.**

**"****Does this mean we can let go yet?"**

**"****Nope!"**

**"****SHREEK!" Their ride screamed, a Drake, a twenty foot long winged lizard Grimm, the boys were holding onto the creature's back spikes as they looked for the temple from the air.**

**"****There it is!"**

**"****NOW can we let go?"**

**"****Yup!"**

**In unison both boys let go, they dropped like stones.**

**A gold Glyph in the shape of a star inside a circle, the Gold family crest, formed a platform beneath Julius' feet, the heir created more and simply hopped from Glyph to Glyph until he reached the ground, Onyx set Rise to wind Dust and punched straight down when he was twenty feet from the ground, then he flared his aura and landed on his feet. The temple was a crumbling ruin with a number of pedestals in a semicircle, and on the pedestals were...**

**"****Chess pieces?" Julius asked nobody, Onyx however wasn't looking at the 'relics', he was looking up.**

**"****Julius, we need to get out of here."**

**"****What why?" In answer Onyx pointed up, the Drake was sweeping around, intent on finding and killing the puny humans who'd dared to ride it.**

**"****Right, no time, grab something and let's get out of here!" Following his partner's suggestion, Onyx grabbed a black rook piece, then both boys booked it out of the clearing, a massive flying lizard hot on their tails.**

**"****Do you have a plan?" Julius asked.**

**"****Yeah, keep running, we need to reach the cliffs!"**

**"****I'm pretty sure running towards a dead end is exactly what we ****_don't _****want to do!"**

**"****Alex went this way, which means he's got a partner and is making his way to the cliffs, we need reinforcements."**

**"****How do you know!" They stopped talking to jump over a log.**

**"****He carved his symbol on a tree in the clearing, we ran right by it as we left."**

**Julius was startled, Onyx had seen and discerned the meaning of a symbol carved on the trunk of a tree as he was running past it with a Drake after him? This boy's powers of concentration and observation were something else.**

**The Drake was flying above them, the trees were too close here for it to attack, but eventually they reached the break in the treeline. Alex and Violet were preparing to scale the cliff, when Onyx let out a warning.**

**"****Alex! We've got one mildly pissed off giant flying lizard, mind giving us a hand?"**

**Alex and his partner readied their weapons, Alex held Whisper and Shout, while Violet extended Inferno and Blizzard, when the Drake showed itself, flying straight toward the retreating Huntsmen in training, Alex leveled his guns and began firing, the Dust rounds simply glanced off the Drake's scales, Julius launched five explosive Glyphs, which did very little, except make it madder. The Drake charged.**

**"****Guys, JUMP!" Onyx yelled, they all did, and with a short hop, Onyx set Rise to ice and slammed his fist onto the ground, the area for twenty feet around him froze solid, setting his gauntlets to wind he used both to launch himself to the left, just in time as the Drake lost control and slid into the cliff face, Alex ran in and jumped onto the creature's neck, his arms were barely capable of reaching around the neck, enough that he could press Speech against the Drake's throat and hold it with both hands, one on either side, the monster took flight, Alex still holding on for dear life. Violet and Julius joined Onyx.**

**"****I've already told Alex and Julius my plan so here goes." Violet told Onyx the plan.**

**When everyone was in place Violet yelled. "Okay Alex, bring it down!" Red light exploded out of Alex's body, and he hauled up on Speech, forcing the Drake's head up, and the rest of it's body as well, before he separated Speech, and shot both wings to shreds, his enhanced aura making the Dust bullets far more powerful than normal. With it's wings reduced to tattered flesh the Drake fell like a stone, Alex jumped off then his pistols started glowing red as he fired shot after shot into an exposed part of the Drake's chest, until his aura depleted and he passed out, Onyx set Rise to fire Dust, and Fall to wind, he jumped up, aided by Fall on full auto, though he made sure to only fire as close to half the bullets as possible going up, he flew past Julius, who was hanging basically upside down from a silver Glyph, then he fired the remaining bullets in Fall behind and above him, launching him at the Drake, specifically at the spot that Alex had weakened, Violet froze the monster in place with Blizzard while Onyx was in the air. He impacted, right fist first into the Drake's chest, the resulting explosion shattered the scales completely and dealt significant, though not lethal, damage, the death stroke came when Onyx jumped off, and out of the way, a fiery comet fell from the sky and Julius Gold's blazing sword pierced through the Drake's chest, and into it's heart.**

**_Later, in the auditorium._**

**"****Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark, you retrieved the black Bishop pieces, together you will be known as Team CRDL (Cardinal), led by: Cardin Winchester." Professor Ozpin announced, the crowd applauded as the newly formed team walked off stage.**

**"****Violet Lightwood, Onyx Blanch, Alexander Garnet, Julius Gold, you retrieved the black Rook pieces, together you will be known as Team VOAJ (Voyage), led by: Violet Lightwood."**

**"****Me? Leader?" Violet asked, stunned.**

**"****Well, you ****_did _****come up with the plan to kill the Drake." Onyx pointed out. The crowd clapped, as they walked off the stage.**

**"****Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, you retrieved the white Rook pieces, together you will be known as Team JNPR (Juniper), led by: Jaune Arc." Nora glomped Ren in joy.**

**"****What? Led by...?"Jaune was flabbergasted.**

**"****Congratulations, young man." Ozpin said.**

**Pyrrha, overjoyed at her partner's appointment to leader, punched him playfully on the shoulder, unfortunately, it took Jaune completely by surprise, and he fell over, to a storm of laughter from the crowd.**

**"****And finally... Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, you retrieved the white Knight pieces, together you will be known as Team RWBY (Ruby), led by: Ruby Rose." Ruby looked as surprised as Jaune had been, Weiss looked like she'd been slapped, Blake gave a small smile, her partner however wasn't so composed, Yang hugged Ruby.**

**"****I'm so proud of you!" She yelled.**

**_So am I _****Onyx thought.**

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><p><strong>(Author's Note: There we go, time to start writing the school stuff, and PLOT.)<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five: The first day of school

Onyx made sure he woke up early, he rummaged in Alex's stuff until he found the coffeemaker, which he set up as quietly as possible, when Alex woke up, Onyx met him with a steaming cup of strong coffee, Alex yanked the mug from his friend's hand and drank it down.

"Feeling human again, buddy?"

"Yep, I feel like a newborn man!"

Julius woke up groggily. "That's wonderful news, but could you please not inform the people in the rooms next to us of that fact, ah, coffee, do you mind?"

"Of course not, and sorry if I was a bit loud for a second there, I feel awful in the morning until I get my coffee."

"Understandable."

Once everyone was changed into their uniforms, the boys in a gold lined black suit, black pants, a blue vest, white dress shirt, and red tie, and Violet in a brown jacket, tan vest, white shirt, and a red plaid skirt, which she picked at distastefully, they got down to business.

"Alright team! Since we each have yet to decorate, or even unpack, let's get to it!" Violet exclaimed. Team VOAJ set to decorating their individual spaces, Onyx set up a picture of himself and his parents from before they died, Alex looked at the picture sadly, he'd been to their funeral. Then Onyx hung up a band poster for a rock band. Alex set out pictures of his parents, his three sisters, and his dog a black and white Atlesian Shepherd named Dork, Alex was eight when he named the dog. Julius hung up a painting of a snow covered mountain, and Violet put up an Achieve Men poster and a photo of her parents and a much younger version of herself.

"Alright, classes start at nine o'clock." Violet began.

"Are you aware what time it is?" Julius asked, everyone checked the clocks on their Scrolls, 8:50 AM, they weren't in danger of being late, but they would have to leave immediately.

Ten minutes later Teams RWBY and JNPR burst into Professor Port's Grimm Studies class, to find seats in the front, with team VOAJ. The teacher was a fat elderly man with a huge mustache that covered his mouth, and large eyebrows over perpetually squinting eyes, his name was Professor Peter Port, and it took exactly one sentence from him for Onyx to conclude that this class would be unbelievably boring.

"Monsters, Deeeemons, Prowlers of the night, yes the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I simply refer to them as Prey! Ha Ha!" Onyx toned out the rest of the Professor's speech, he had long ago mastered the ability to listen without paying attention, and still remember the important bits, he mostly used it in these sort of situations, when he simply didn't want to pay attention, but was unwilling to ignore the Professor entirely. Onyx started drawing idly on his paper, not really paying attention to what he was drawing until he was finished, it was a picture of Ruby, hood down, cloak flapping in a night breeze leaning against Crescent Rose with a full moon behind her, he'd drawn roses around the border of the picture.

"What's that?" Before Onyx could stop her Violet nabbed the drawing.

"Oh ho! So, you got a thing for Little Red, huh? Really good drawing too, maybe Miss Rose would be interested in seeing this?" Violet was grinning from ear to ear.

"Please, Violet, don't show her that picture, we're just friends, and I will _not _have that ruined by a stupid drawing that I wasn't even paying attention to when I was drawing it, so please, please, just give it back."

"It _is_ a rather excellent drawing, maybe I'll just keep it."

Onyx sighed. "Violet, it's my drawing, just give it back please."

"Would the two of you quit arguing about a drawing, you're distracting me from the lecture." Julius admonished.

Violet was about to respond when Weiss Schnee's shout cut off the budding argument.

"I do Sir!" While Onyx had been drawing he'd watched Weiss grow steadily more annoyed at Ruby, who, instead of paying attention had been messing around, finally snapping as Professor Port challenged the class to see if they believed they had what it took to be a Hunter.

Once Weiss had changed into her combat attire and had her Multi Action Dust Rapier, Myrtenaster strapped to her waist, she stood in the center of the lecture area, Professor Port had brought in a covered cage while Weiss had been busy preparing herself.

"Step forward, and face your opponent!" The professor challenged, as he pulled the covering off, the object inside wasn't technically a cage, it was a box large enough to hold a small to medium sized Grimm. Judging from the grunting and squeals, the box held a Boarbatusk, a boar like Grimm with a particularly nasty temper, and lots of armored plates on it's back.

"Gooo, Weiss!" Yang yelled.

"Fight well!" Added Blake, who, somehow had gotten her hands on a little RWBY flag and was waving it in support of her teammate.

"Yeah! Represent Team RWBY!" Ruby cheered.

The white haired heiress snapped at her leader. "Ruby! I'm trying to concentrate!"

Ruby's enthusiasm dimmed. "Oh, uh... Sorry."

Professor Port, who was holding his weapon, a blunderbuss/battleaxe mix that Onyx thought would be rather impractical in a fight, decided that it was time to start the proceedings.

Aaalright! Let the fight, begin!" With an effortless swing, that somewhat changed Onyx's opinion of both the weapon and it's wielder, the professor slashed the lock off of the box, the Boarbatusk smashed through the door and charged at the first thing it saw: Weiss.

The heiress rolled to the side and slashed at the monster's side with her rapier, which Onyx could admit, was sturdier than most other rapiers, and therefore was better able to be used as an effective slashing weapon, however the Boarbatusk's tough hide and the bony plates that dotted it's back prevented the attack from doing any appreciable damage.

The monster and the heiress were standing on opposite sides of the room, studying each other.

Professor Port's voice broke the momentary silence. "Haha! Weren't expecting that, were you?"

Ruby decided to cheer her partner on. "Hang in there Weiss!"

The white haired girl spared Ruby a glance of irritation, before leveling her sword at her opponent, and summoning a Glyph that sent her gliding at high speeds towards the Grimm. Unfortunately, Weiss underestimated her opponent, instead of Myrtenaster plunging into the monster's eye, the Boarbatusk's tusks parried the strike, and locked the sword, and the heiress, into a wrestling match.

"Bold new approach, I like it!" Onyx thought Professor Port was taking too much enjoyment from watching his student wrestle a monster pig that probably weighed twice what she did, for possession of her only weapon.

Unfortunately, Ruby tried to encourage her partner, unaware that, not only was it completely unwelcome, it would prove to be a critical distraction.

"Come on Weiss! Show it who's boss!" Weiss glared at her leader, and the pig demon took advantage of the distraction to yank the sword from her hand and throw it behind the monster.

Panicking now, the white haired heiress was knocked backward by a swipe of the Boarbatusk's tusks, she managed to get to her feet in time to throw herself out of the way of the charging monster, who crashed into a desk, and was flipped onto it's back form it's own momentum, giving Weiss the time she needed to dash over and grab Myrtenaster.

"Weiss, go for it's belly! There's no armor underneath..." Ruby began to advise her partner, who snapped back.

"Stop telling me what to do!" Onyx growled at the hurt expression on Ruby's face, Weiss had gone too far when Ruby was only trying to help her partner. The Boarbatusk curled up and began spinning rapidly, zooming towards Weiss, who, rather than dodge, created a Glyph in front of her, which the monster bounced off of onto it's back, Weiss summoned two more Glyphs, one launched her into the air, the other, a black one, caught her and held her suspended in the air, before changing to light blue and launching the heiress at the monster, who died seconds later, Myrtenaster buried hilt deep in it's stomach.

"Bravo! Bra-vo! It seems we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress in training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have, be sure to cover the assigned readings, and remember: Stay vigilant! Class dismissed." Weiss stalked off, Ruby followed her partner, Onyx was about to follow them, when his partner held up his hand to stop him.

"Allow me to talk to Weiss, if you do it in your current state, you'll just end up yelling at her, and that would just make things worse." Julius stated calmly. "You should talk to Miss Rose, you can relate to her situation better than anyone."

"Fine, I'll help Ruby, you go talk to Weiss." The partners walked after the girls in question, they caught the tail end of an argument.

"...And quite frankly, I deserve better! Ozpin made a mistake." They heard the sound of Weiss' boots walking away, Professor Ozpin was standing behind Ruby, who wasn't aware of his presence, however when he saw Onyx and Julius, he winked at the boys and walked off, Julius continued on, going after Weiss, while Onyx approached Ruby.

"Hey, Ruby, are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh! Onyx, it's you, just feeling a little down right now." The misery on Ruby's face lessened when she saw him.

"Is it because of Weiss?"

"We just had an argument, she says that I've been acting childishly, and that I don't deserve to be leader, and I'm not sure if she isn't right."

"Ruby, it's only been a day since you've become leader, sure you were messing around in class, and just for the record, picking your nose may have taken that a bit too far, but that doesn't mean you're incompetent, it just makes you who you are, all you need to do to be a good leader is put your teammates before yourself, and try to do the best you can. Leadership isn't just commanding your teammates on the battlefield, you have to give your teammates reason to trust and respect you outside the battlefield. You need to decide how you'll carry the burden of leadership for yourself, because you've got three other lives in your hands now, whether they want to be or not, and it's your responsibility to keep them safe, happy, and together. I for one, know that I would trust you with my life anytime."

Ruby smiled up at her friend, whose heart skipped a beat at the pure, innocent expression. "Thanks Onyx, that really helped, you really are the best!" Then she hugged him, before walking off, the spring back in her step. Onyx just stood in the hallway, remembering the feeling of her arms around him, her cheek on his chest, it had felt good, _right_ even, like that was where he belonged, in her arms, breathing in the scent of roses, but he knew that wasn't true, he didn't belong anywhere, not until his uncle had paid for his crimes with his life. Onyx punched the marble wall with all of his strength, unaided by his aura, the knuckles on his left hand split as the marble gained a dent the size of his fist, and two inches deep, cursing himself for his lack of self control, Onyx concentrated on the split skin on his left hand, several flickers of grey light later, his hand was whole again, he walked to the bathroom to wash the blood off.

_Meanwhile with Julius._

"Weiss! I want to talk to you." Julius had broken into a brisk walk to catch up to the angry girl.

"Julius? What is it?" Weiss had stopped and turned to the Gold heir.

"Is there anything troubling you?" Julius was never one to beat around the bush, but he knew that if he was too direct she would simply become angry and not listen to him, they had grown up together, he knew her almost as well as he knew himself, they were similar in many regards, but the issue at hand was one place where their upbringing differed, Weiss, as the younger daughter of the head of Schnee Dust, had been pampered, protected, and shuffled aside, she had by no means been kept ignorant, she would never have allowed that to happen, beneath that judgmental, cold, and abrasive exterior was a keen mind, and a good heart, she simply tended to judge people too harshly, and by standards that were too rigid, and with too little information to base it on. By contrast, Julius, the only child of the current head of Gold Industries had been expected to earn everything he got, the only thing Weiss had ever successfully fought with her father about had been her application to Beacon, so she was much less aware of her limits than he was of his, and she was far less likely to admit that she had any, Julius had long ago accepted that there was no such thing as a perfect person, so he was more accepting of flaws, while Weiss measured everyone up to her idea of the perfect person for their specific role, which was the problem in this case, Ruby fell far short of what a perfect leader was in Weiss' eyes.

"Julius, you know what my problem is, it's that-that _child_ that Professor Ozpin put in charge of Team RWBY! She's irresponsible, undisciplined, reckless, and just plain _irritating_!"

"Who would you rather lead? You? Weiss, if you were leader, if the headmaster were to, at this moment remove Ruby from her position and give the spot to you, what would you do?"

"I would... I-I would."

"Exactly, Weiss, you are an exceptional warrior, highly intelligent, dedicated and very loyal to those who you accept as friends, a lucky few I am proud to be one of, but you aren't a leader."

"What! How dare you!"

"I dare because you're my friend Weiss, and I hate watching you lash out at those around you. A team leader needs to know that she can trust those under her with her life, and more importantly, the team needs to know that they can similarly trust their leader, even if you took power from Ruby, you would have lost that trust forever, her sister is on the team as well, I believe? How do you think she would react? A team leader must always put the team before herself, admittedly Ruby hasn't seemed to learn that quite yet, and you certainly haven't, Weiss this is a school, nobody here can be expected to be perfect immediately, or there would be no point in Beacon even existing, why don't you wait a few weeks before passing judgment on your leader, she seems like she might surprise you. You have a good team, and you should know that being the leader isn't the only way for you to ensure that Team RWBY meets your standards, and more importantly, for you anyway, your father's standards, I know that he told you that if he believed you were unsuccessful he'd pull you out"

Weiss looked dejected at the thought of her father's reaction. "He will be furious that I was passed up as leader for an irresponsible, hyperactive girl two years younger than me."

A smile began to form as he watched his long time friend and added a bit of advice. "That depends on how you tell him."

"What do you mean?"

"Tell the truth, your leader is a prodigy that Ozpin himself picked out to move ahead two years, who, during your initiation, led your team to kill a Giant Nevermore, a monster that most fully fledged Hunters don't kill unscathed." Weiss was smiling now too, she knew that that interpretation would be the only one that could placate her father.

"Thank you Julius, I can always count on you, even when I don't know I need help, I'll wait, you might be right, perhaps she'll surprise me, I don't believe she will, but I will give her a real chance."

"That's all I ask. I look forward to the next four years, we haven't had much time together for three years, I hope to change that."

"I agree, we should find time to catch up."

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><p>(Author's note: Here's chapter five, please read, enjoy, and review.)<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: An avenger and a rose

Onyx needed somewhere to think, so he turned to his forging, just like he had when he was at Sanctum. Beacon's forges were huge, they took up an entire set of eleven two forge buildings and were always filled with the noises of hammers on metal and machines clunking and whirring, the constant noise and scent of sweat, hot metal, and Dust fires resonated deep in his soul. Onyx let out a sigh of contentment, just being near the forges put him in a state of contentment, working on his latest projects always cleared his mind and allowed him to focus on his problems while he went through the comfortingly familiar steps of working metal and Dust.

He had brought his own materials, of course, if he needed more he would just take a look in the scrap basket, a large metal container that held irreparably broken parts and scrap metal for use as spare materials. Onyx held a bar of steel in a red Dust furnace with a pair of tongs, once it was heated to his satisfaction, Onyx placed the glowing bar on an anvil, then he began hammering out the outer frame of what would eventually become a mechanical breastplate.

_Ruby's point of view, the forges._

Ruby was performing her biweekly maintenance on Crescent Rose, when a familiar figure entered the forge, Onyx was carrying a box of scrap metal and tools, he'd changed out of his uniform into a pair of grey cargo pants, and a black tank top that showed off his muscled, tan, and heavily scarred arms, clearly he didn't use his aura very much while working, a pair of welding goggles were on his forehead, as he selected a bar of metal to use he pulled the goggles over his blue eyes that made her feel a little dizzy whenever she looked at them, _what are you thinking!? He's just a friend._ Ruby thought back to when she'd hugged him earlier, she had felt him draw away from her, not physically, but emotionally, when she'd let go his expression had been distant, and painful. _Why does that bother me so much? We've only known eachother for a couple days, so why does he have this effect on me? Yeah, he's nice, handsome, and loves weapons, but that isn't what has me so focused on him, he's just so sad all the time, he's hiding it pretty well, but we're similar enough that I can tell, and I hate it, I hate that something happened to make him this way, I just don't know_ why. A man's voice interrupted Ruby's thoughts.

"Well, well, Nephew, I see you've found a place for yourself, don't expect it to last."

Onyx's grip tightened on the hammer he held until his knuckles turned white, while grey light, his aura, began leaking from his body, whoever this man was, his very presence made Onyx so mad that the physical expression of his soul was reacting to the intensity of his emotions.

"Get. Out. Derek. Before I break that projection into pieces."

The man, Derek, laughed. "Now is that any way to talk to the uncle you haven't seen in over a year?"

"You lost the right to call yourself my uncle when you killed my parents, you bastard."

"My, such harsh words from my favorite nephew, it's so sad that I'll be coming to finish the job someday soon." Onyx threw the hammer with all his might, grey light streaking after it, the hammer hit the projection and tore it like the image of the man was made of paper. Ruby ran to her friend's side.

"Onyx, what was that about?"

"How much did you hear?"

"All of it."

Onyx sighed. "Damn, I wanted to keep my friends out of this, but you've learned the truth, so I'll tell you the whole story. That was my Father's brother, Derek, a year ago I was coming home from Sanctum, when I felt a major warning pulse from my aura, because I have a Sensory type Semblance, the sense enhancements in my aura are about three times more effective than normal, including my danger sense, I ran to my house, and I found my uncle holding my mother up by her throat, right in front of me, he snapped her neck and threw her to my feet, then he smiled at me and told me 'I'll come for you, too, eventually.' Then he vanished in a flash of light, I've been hunting him ever since, and I won't stop until he's dead, or I am, so don't try to stop me."

Ruby looked up at those blue eyes, which were burning with anger. "I won't, but I am going to insist that you let me help, and I won't take no for an answer."

_Onyx's point of view._

Onyx looked down into determined silver eyes, he could tell that no matter what he said, she would get herself involved. "Fine, I hate it, I won't lie to you, I hate putting someone I care about in danger, but I'm going to insist that you can't tell your team, or your sister, or anyone else about this, I have no choice but to involve you, so that you don't go poking around without me and get yourself killed, but nobody else gets involved."

_Dammit! I take one look at this girl and I start to forget how dangerous this is! At least I retained enough brain cells to make sure no one else is put in danger, small comfort that is if Ruby gets hurt._

Onyx had lost his desire to make anything, so he dunked the still glowing hunk of metal in the ice Dust run cooler which brought down the temperature of the piece of metal, which he dumped in the scrap basket, someone else could use it.

_Ruby's point of view._

Ruby watched as Onyx abandoned his project, his shoulders were slumped and his eyes had lost the fire they'd previously held. The young scythe wielder finished checking her weapon in thirty two seconds, she knew her sweetheart like nothing else on Remnant, and, while she was very worried about Onyx, she couldn't just leave the massive scythe where it was to go chase after him, when she was finished, she collapsed Crescent Rose into it's inactive form, and, using her Semblance, zipped off after Onyx, when she came up next to the black haired boy she slowed to keep pace with him.

"You're not going to work on your project?" She asked, someone like Onyx, or herself, wouldn't usually just walk away from something they were forging, making things helped people like them to process pain and sorrow, she knew _why_ it had happened, but it was a pretty serious sign if he was stuck on painful thoughts that left him unwilling to enjoy anything.

"I'm not in the mood to make anything." Onyx's voice sounded numb, and that made Ruby worry even more.

"I know that seeing your uncle, and telling me about your parents deaths made you relive the whole thing all over again, but you can't blame yourself for their deaths, they were _his_ fault, not yours, thinking any other way will just hurt you for no reason."

"What do _you_ know about it?" Onyx's voice was full of bitterness. Ruby didn't hold it against him, she knew pain could make people lash out, she'd done plenty of it herself over the years, but he was going to need a shock to snap him out of this.

"I lost my mother when I was little, I was barely four, but I remember it perfectly, Mom was a Huntress, and one day she went on a mission, and just... Never came back, she's listed as missing in action, but it's been so long, we've given up any hope. My Mom, the woman who would read me bedtime stories, bake Yang and I the world's best cookies, and never treated either of us like our opinions didn't matter because we were children, my Mom, who would take her weapon out to scare the monsters we were afraid were under our beds and in our closets, the most important person in my life for my first four years, is dead. One of my reasons for becoming a Huntress was just to take the pain I still feel after all these years out on the monsters that killed her, so I know _exactly_ how you feel. But I don't let that pain control me, because Mom wouldn't like that, I still live life, I laugh, I take joy from the world around me, and I try to send more back out than I took from the world, because that's how Yang, and Dad raised me, because if I don't I feel like I'm disrespecting Mom's memory, that's what I know about it." Onyx's eyes had regained their usual life, and they radiated sympathy, not pity, Ruby hated it when people pitied her, but Onyx didn't pity her.

"I'm sorry Ruby, I was out of line, will you forgive me?"

"Of course I do! You were too wrapped up in your memories to think clearly, but if you do it again, I'll beat you up, got it?" Ruby smiled up at Onyx, happy that her friend was back to normal.

"I got it, Miss Rose, I promise not to let myself get too wrapped up in bad memories to live life." The smile he sent down to her made heat rise in her face, they stood looking into each other's eyes for a long moment, then Onyx coughed, and turned his head uncomfortably. They walked to their Dorms in uncomfortable silence.

* * *

><p>(Author's note: Here we are, the introduction of the villain, and the start of the romance, read, enjoy (or not), and review, thank you)<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter seven: Team CRDL**

**Onyx was walking down the hall two days later, when he came across Beacon's resident thugs, Team CRDL were all circled around a dog faunus boy, Dove had managed to grab the boy's weapon before he could make a move to defend himself, Onyx frankly hated all four of them, they were cruel, discriminatory cowards and Onyx's head was still full of anger that needed to be worked out of him from his Uncle's appearance, so he took the opportunity provided, quietly he walked up behind Dove, grabbed the back of his head, and slammed his face into the wall next to him, as Dove collapsed, Onyx punched Sky in the temple, dropping him like a sock puppet, the black haired brawler drove his fist into Cardin's gut as hard as possible, Russel tried to run, but Onyx caught him before he could make it three steps.**

**"****Don't hurt me please!" The knife fighter whimpered.**

**Onyx gave him a bone chilling grin. "Don't worry, I'm not going to harm you, in fact, I have a proposition for your team, once they wake up of course, it's simple: Later today the four of you fight me, no weapons, armor, or Semblances, all of you at once, during our combat class, if you win, then I promise not to interfere with you guys for the rest of the year, if I win then you guys are going to straighten your acts up, and if you refuse to participate, this little scene is going to repeat itself every time I see the four of you outside of class, and I'll make this offer to one of the others, I'll also make sure to pay special attention to you before I make the offer, so then, Russel, what's it going to be?"**

**"****We'll do it!" The terrified bully squeaked.**

**"****Good, I'll see the four of you soon."**

**_Four hours later._**

**Onyx stood at one end of the arena, his opponents, the entirety of Team CRDL, stood on the other, everyone was unarmed and unarmored, as per the agreement before the beginning of the fight.**

**Professor Goodwitch looked at the five boys and addressed them. "This is a sparring match between Onyx Blanch of Team VOAJ and Team CRDL, the following rules have been agreed to by both parties beforehand, no weapons or armor, no Semblances, no death or serious injury, a fighter is out once his aura hits red... Begin!"**

**Onyx stood in a boxer's stance, waiting as Team CRDL charged him as one, Russel leaped into the air, rolled once, and came out of the roll feet first, Onyx ducked and allowed Russel to fly past his head before reaching up and grabbing the skinny boy by the back of his jacket, turning, he threw Russel into Sky, sending them both to the ground, without pause Onyx ran forward, stomped on Dove's instep, and slammed his palm into the sandy haired boy's face, and dropping to one knee to slam Dove's head into the floor, Cardin aimed a kick at his kneeling opponent, who rolled backwards and to his feet, brushing aside a punch, tilting his head to allow another to pass by, a punch to the gut caused Cardin to stagger backward, but Onyx was prevented from taking advantage of that by Russel and Sky, the two boys worked well together Onyx admitted, as their flurry of attacks forced him to back up, dodging and blocking each strike, when Sky started to lose momentum Onyx attacked, a straight right to Sky's jaw, and a low kick to Russel's leg and Onyx began forcing them back, until Cardin came barreling towards the fight, all three combatants dove out of the large leader's path, Onyx back flipped to his feet and resumed his offensive, three long steps and a roundhouse kick to Cardin's left ear sent the orange haired thug sprawling, then Dove struck, his right hook grazed Onyx's jaw, before Onyx lowered his shoulder and tackled Dove to the ground, pinning the bully to the ground with his body, Onyx punched Dove in the face three times before being forced to stand up, using the added momentum to give force to his uppercut that Sky Lark barely managed to dodge, Onyx hooked his left foot behind Sky's right, and punched him in the face, tripping him while Onyx blocked a kick from Russel and hopped backward twice while Sky and Dove got up, and Cardin joined his team, the four CRDLs charged together, but Onyx struck first, a left hook sent Russel tumbling backwards, Onyx's knee hit Cardin in the gut, Sky and Dove tried to punch him from both sides, but Onyx grabbed Sky's wrist and shoulder, flipping him to the ground while Onyx ducked Dove's punch, three quick jabs to the gut sent Dove to his knees, a vicious kick to the chin dropped his aura to red and knocked him out cold. Cardin, Russel, and Sky charged, Onyx met it with his own assault, he punched Cardin's elbow when the team leader tried to punch him, Sky and Russel tried to kick Onyx, but the black haired brawler took both hits to his forearms, the force of the two simultaneous kicks sent him skidding backwards, a grim smile forming on Onyx's face as he punched Sky full force, dropping his aura into the red, Russel and Cardin looked at each other, they'd hesitated too long, Onyx hit them like a thunderbolt, a flurry of punches dropped Russel like a sack of potatoes, after driving him back several steps, a back kick forced Cardin to halt his momentum, and Onyx turned his full attention to the leader of Team CRDL, who charged in with a lumbering right hook, which Onyx ducked under, he didn't expect Cardin to twist to the left and aim a kick at him, Onyx took the hit, which made him stagger, only to steady himself and bull rush Cardin, knocking the orange haired boy to the ground, where several kicks to Cardin's stomach dropped his aura into the red, one more than necessary, really.**

**"****Maybe next time you'll think before you pick on other students, Cardin." Onyx warned. A quick glance at his Scroll told Onyx that his aura was just barely into the yellow, sixty percent.**

**The other students looked at him with various degrees of shock, they had just watched Onyx destroy an entire team with his bare hands. Someone Onyx had never met broke the shocked silence.**

**"****Holy shit, two of them are unconscious, and he barely has a scratch on him." Onyx's friends all ran down to him, Ruby got there well before anyone else.**

**"****What the hell was that about?!" Ruby yelled, Onyx almost lost his reply from the sheer shock of hearing her swear, and to Ruby, hell was a swear word, or hearing her angry.**

**"****Not all of us can work out all our issues in a workshop Ruby, sometimes I just need a good fight to clear my head, and Team CRDL needed to be put in their place, hard, so I decided to solve two problems at once, I doubt very much that they'll keep their end of our bet, but this should scare them into laying low for a while." Ruby punched Onyx in the stomach, it didn't do very much, between his aura and his abs Ruby's fist barely even hurt, but the look of anger and sadness hurt worse than any blow.**

**"****I was worried about you dummy, you took on four of this schools worst bullies at once, unarmed! What if you got hurt!? You promised that you would be okay two days ago, but that..." She pointed at the groaning form of Cardin Winchester. "That doesn't look okay to me, you were barely in control of yourself during that fight, if you weren't so much better than them in unarmed combat you would have gotten seriously hurt, you were fighting stupidly because you're angry, and I get that..." Then Ruby's voice got quieter, her expression was sad and hurt rather than angry. "What I don't get is why you felt you had to do this to work out your issues rather than just talking to me about it."**

**Onyx felt like shit, she was right, that fight had been completely unnecessary, he could have just stopped them in the hallway and scared them away from the faunus boy, he hadn't needed to make a stupid bet that they wouldn't honor anyway, he hadn't needed to hold back when he was fighting them in order to work out his anger, and he certainly should have trusted Ruby enough to talk to her and prevent the entire thing from happening in the first place.**

**"****I'm sorry, you're right, I wasn't thinking clearly."**

**Ruby still didn't look satisfied but she calmed down.**

**"****I'm glad you aren't hurt, but don't think you're off the hook mister! I'm still mad at you, and you are going to make it up to me, meet me at the landing area after classes."**

**"****Yes Ma'am."**

**Their friends arrived just then and began showering him with comments.**

**"****That was sloppy dude, what the hell?" Alex demanded, the others looked at him askance.**

**Jaune spoke up. "Sloppy? He took down Team CRDL and barely got a scratch for it, how is that sloppy?"**

**Alex's red eyes narrowed. "Onyx could take those idiots in a quarter of the time he did, and not be hit once, even without his Semblance or weapons, Team CRDL, like most Hunter trainees are dependant on their weapons, but Onyx's weapon is his body, that fight was basically four unarmed guys against one armed one, but Onyx repeatedly let them have opportunities to act, he even let them attack first and set the pace for the fight, he was being sloppy on purpose, he didn't even use his aura in his strikes." The others looked at Onyx in surprize.**

**"****Is that true?" Pyrrha asked. "While you were fairly high on the individual ranking board, I don't recall ever seeing you fight at Sanctum, so I wouldn't know, ****_were _****you holding back on them?"**

**Onyx nodded. "I could have ended that fight in the first rush, their defences were so full of holes that I could have flown a Bullhead through them, instead I chose to hold back."**

**Julius looked at his partner. "Why? From what I've seen you don't seem like the type to hold back on people like them, you tend to take down enemies as quickly as possible, so why didn't you do so if you could have?"**

**Onyx didn't want to explain about his Uncle to his friends so he just shrugged and walked away.**

**(Ruby's POV)**

**Ruby dashed after Onyx.**

**"****Why don't you tell them?"**

**"****I only told you because I didn't have a choice, I am not putting anyone else that I care about in danger, it's bad enough that I'm forced to put you at risk, I would honestly rather die than see you get hurt, Ruby, but at least with you working with me rather than around me I can keep that from happening."**

**"****I'm not going to get hurt, Onyx, and I don't want to see you get hurt either, if you did die for me you would be hurting me just as surely as if you had stabbed me yourself. You're my best friend, and yeah, I don't have many friends to choose from, and we've only known each other for a few days, but you're the only one of my friends that I can talk about weapons with and have you actually understanding what I'm saying, and I..." ****_Love you. _****She was surprised to think it, but she was starting to realize that it was true, he was annoyingly stubborn and protective about sharing his past with other people, but he was also kind, compassionate, and brave, he was handsome, and an excellent fighter, and when she was with him it sometimes felt like they had been friends for years rather than days, despite the fact that she often had trouble interacting with other people, she didn't feel that with him, Onyx made her feel steadier, less awkward, like his very presence was enough to give her confidence.**

**"****Ruby? Are you okay?" Onyx had bent down to get a good look at her, concern showing clearly in his blue eyes, he put the back of his hand against her forehead, trying to see if she had a fever.**

**"****You stopped talking in the middle of your sentence, then you got this glazed look in your eyes and your face turned red, do you feel sick? Do you want me to take you to the infirmary?"**

**"****N-no! I-I'm fine, just got distracted for a second. I'm good, hehehe." Ruby trailed off with a nervous laugh.**

**Onyx's worried look turned into a smile. "Good, I was a little scared for a second, but if you're okay, then everything's okay." He brushed a lock of her red tinted hair behind her ear and straightened up, he didn't seem to be aware of the fact that his fingertips brushed the side of her neck as he lowered his hand, but Ruby was ****_very _****aware of it, and she had to suppress a tremble of joy, her previous anger with the tall, black haired boy in front of her was long gone as she smiled up at him, though her thoughts were slightly frustrated, ****_if only he weren't so darned _****tall****_, I could kiss him._**

**"****Thanks, Onyx, I'm fine, I'm more worried about you, are you ****_sure _****you've gotten all of your anger out of your system? 'Cause if not I'd be happy to talk, or spar, or help you forge something."**

**"****I'm fine Ruby, though I wouldn't say no to a trip to the forges with you."**

**"****Okay!" The fifteen year old scythe wielder beamed up at her friend, then she grabbed his hand, twining their fingers together, and pulled the much larger teen behind her, she was grinning in satisfaction, it was a small victory, but she'd take it.**

* * *

><p><strong>(Author's Note: Here's the next exciting installment of Beacon's VOAJ (Voyage)! This actually started as something I'd written but never actually planned to use, Onyx vs. Team CRDL, plus, for some reason, I really, <em>really<em> wanted to write Dove getting his head slammed into a wall, then it sort of evolved, as always please Read, Review, and Enjoy.)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter eight: Light in the Darkness**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**At five thirty, Onyx stood watching one of the school's giant, finned airships come to a stop in mid air, and attach itself to the boarding dock, Onyx was dressed in black combat boots, grey cargo pants, a white, tight fitting t-shirt, and his dark grey jacket that sported his symbol, he was waiting for Ruby to show up.**

**"****Hey Onyx, sorry I kept you waiting." Ruby was walking towards him, she too had changed out of her school uniform and into casual clothes, a dark red tank top, and ankle length swirly black skirt, with black sandals, her bottom lip glistened slightly, as she approached Onyx she slowed down, her fingers nervously brushed a stray lock of her cutely uneven red-black hair behind her ear, it was the first time he'd seen her without her hooded cloak in daylight, the absence of the hood caused the angularness of her features to stand out a little more, and made him notice her hair more, she looked ****_really _****cute, and Onyx felt a smile form just from seeing her walking towards him.**

**"****Don't worry about it, I wasn't waiting long, so... Where to first Miss Rose?" Onyx smiled down at her, she returned the grin with a sweet smile of her own that nearly shut off Onyx's higher reasoning functions.**

**"****Anywhere I want, Mr. Blanch, this ****_is _****a punishment for you breaking your promise to me from two days ago." She said it in a playful way, so Onyx was fairly sure that she was over the anger from earlier, a feeling that was confirmed when she took hold of his hand and led him onto the airship, she didn't let go when they sat down on one of the benches against the wall, and he wasn't complaining in the slightest, they started talking about a weapon design Ruby had been fiddling with since before they'd been accepted into Beacon, neither of them were aware that they were being followed.**

**(Blake's POV)**

**"****Remind me again, why are we spying on your sister and her boyfriend?" Blake asked her partner, as they sat with Violet from Team VOAJ some distance from where Ruby and Onyx were sitting, talking happily and holding hands, it was actually a pretty cute scene, Blake thought, like something out of a fluffy romance novel.**

**"****He's not her boyfriend, they only met a week ago, and to answer your question, we're following them to make sure he doesn't do anything I don't like." Yang answered, her lilac eyes narrowed as she watched the unsuspecting pair.**

**Violet spoke up. "Onyx won't do anything bad to Little Red, the poor guy practically worships the ground she walks on."**

**"****I'm still gonna follow them all day, just to make sure."**

**"****Alright Firebrand, but don't say I didn't warn you when nothing happens and your sister comes after you with her big ass scythe, me and Ninja Girl here are coming along so that ****_you _****don't do anything stupid, like bust in on your sister's first date."**

**The airship came to a stop, and the passengers began filtering out, Yang, with a protesting Blake, and amused Violet dragged along behind her, ran to keep the couple in her sight.**

**Ruby and Onyx, still holding hands, were strolling down the street, they didn't seem to have a specific direction yet, they were talking as they walked, actually, Ruby had a bit of a skip to her step that Blake thought was kind of adorable, she was obviously happy to be with Onyx, and, Blake thought, Yang would be severely disappointed if she thought that she could keep those two from becoming romantically involved, Blake could tell just by looking at them together that they were already in love, it was obvious in Ruby's pure, innocent joy at being with Onyx, and in the gentle way he held her hand or the way he looked at her constantly, as if were he to look away for more than a few seconds, she would vanish, as if the entire world were dark, and she was the lone light in that darkness, it was a phrase Blake had come across in one of her romance novels, and which Blake thought matched the look on Onyx's face at the moment perfectly.**

**The young couple found their destination: a city bus station.**

**"****Shit! We can't go on there, they'd spot us in a second, but we can't wait for the next bus either, that will be in an hour, oh, I know! Taxi!" Yang did her best taxicab whistle, and a yellow cab pulled up in front of them, as they got in the driver asked.**

**"****What can I do for you girls?"**

**"****Follow that bus!" Yang insisted.**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Onyx unconsciously ran his thumb back and forth against the soft skin of the back of Ruby's hand, he couldn't believe he was holding hands with the girl he loved, going to the mall. He looked down at Ruby, who had leaned against his shoulder, so he could only see the top of her head, he let go of her hand, and hoping that she wouldn't object, slid his arm around her waist, far from objecting the young team leader scooted right up against him and wrapped her own arms around his chest, they sat in silence, just holding each other for the whole thirty minute ride, when the bus arrived at the right stop, they let go and returned to holding hands, both of them slightly red in the face.**

**As they stood on the ground floor of the mall Onyx asked Ruby a question.**

**"****So, where to, my beautiful companion?"**

**Ruby blushed the color of her namesake. "The bookstore first, a-and, Um Onyx?"**

**He looked down into her silver eyes. "Yes, Ruby?"**

**"****Do you really think I'm beautiful?" A small, hopeful smile on her lips.**

**"****Absolutely, you are the most beautiful girl I've ever met." The black haired brawler replied seriously, the small smile became a radiant grin of pure joy, reaching up, Ruby pulled Onyx down, she still had to stand on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.**

**"****Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You're very handsome too, Onyx, now, come on! We've got stuff to do!" Ruby literally dragged Onyx, who was just standing there, his fingers on the spot Ruby had kissed, a stupid grin on his face.**

**(Blake's POV)**

**Blake watched Ruby drag Onyx off, and had to stop herself from laughing, those two were so cute together, Blake was happy for her leader, the disguised Faunus girl had watched as the younger girl had struggled with her responsibilities as leader of Team RWBY, it was nice to see Ruby acting like any other teenaged girl on a date with a boy, and not butting heads with Weiss, or stressing about homework. Violet was watching with a similar smile, the only one not smiling was Yang, it took both Blake and Violet to hold back the blond from beating Onyx's face into the ground.**

**"****I'm gonna kill him for kissing my baby sister!" She insisted.**

**Blake tried reasoning with her partner. "****_She _****kissed ****_him _****Yang."**

**"****I don't care, she's too young to be kissing anyone."**

**This time it was Violet who intervened. "She's fifteen Firebrand, you can't keep babying her, she's gotta do some stuff on her own, it's her choice who she does anything with, you can't control her choice of friends, and you definitely shouldn't be messing with her choice of boyfriend, if he were pressuring her in any way I would agree with you, but nothing I've seen shows that, in fact, she's made most of the moves since we've been watching them, besides, if you'd actually look at this with some objectivity, it's obvious they're both serious about this, not to mention he actually seems to be good for her, besides, they're getting away." Yang suddenly changed attitudes.**

**"****Come on, we need to observe, we'll see if this guy is actually good enough to be dating my sister, if he is, then I'll leave them to their date, if not..." Yang held up her fist, her Ember Celica were retracted on her wrists and they made the rest of her threat quite clear.**

**(Ruby's POV)**

**Ruby was happier than she had been in years, ****_he thinks I'm beautiful! _****Her inner teenaged girl squealed, the day so far, short though it had been, was turning out perfectly, Onyx had followed her around the bookstore, it turned out that he liked a lot of the same books she did, and they spent a good hour browsing and chatting about books they liked. Onyx generally preferred darker books than she did, ones where the heroes had to struggle to win, and where the line between good and evil occasionally got blurred along the way, Ruby liked more hopeful books, but she had read, and liked several of Onyx's favorites, and vice versa. When they had a selection of books they wanted, they brought them to the counter, where Onyx insisted on paying for all the books, he said it was an apology for breaking his promise, but Ruby thought that, maybe, it was something else, after all, didn't guys usually pay for things on dates? And this was definitely becoming date-like very quickly. The thought caused her to blush and chew her bottom lip, Onyx stopped her by gently taking hold of her chin.**

**"****Please stop, you'll ruin your lipgloss. which would be a shame, it looks great on you." Onyx stated gently, looking deep into her eyes, and making her blush even more, she nearly fainted when he kissed her on the forehead and lightly nuzzled her hair. Oh yeah, this was definitely a date, Ruby thought, she was gathering her courage to kiss him on the lips when he let go and straightened. ****_Another opportunity wasted. _****Was all that went through the fifteen year old's mind.**

**(Violet's POV)**

**_Hot Damn! Little Red is one lucky girl. _****It wasn't that Violet liked Onyx that way, she didn't, he was too much like a brother to her for any romantic thoughts about the black haired brawler to be anything other than creepy, but looking at those two made Violet feel lonely, seeing them so clearly crazy about each other drove the point home to the leader of Team VOAJ that she didn't have anyone who made her feel like that, not that she needed to, she was fine with being single and focusing on her studies, she was at Beacon to become a Huntress, not get a boyfriend, but she'd be lying if she said she'd object to doing both.**

**(Blake's POV)**

**It was official, those two had to be the cutest couple Blake had ever seen, seriously, barring Yang's occasional burst of sisterly rage, it was worth it following these two just to watch them, it was like watching a romance novel unfold in front of her, except that she actually knew those involved. Onyx was carrying the bags of books as they walked out of the store, Blake's only regret was that the snooping wouldn't permit her to do some book shopping herself, but she, Yang, and an uncharacteristically silent Violet walked quickly in the wake of the happy couple as they entered a women's underwear store.**

**"****Damn... She's giving him the underwear test, way to go Little Red." Violet muttered.**

**Blake was confused, during her time with the White Fang she hadn't exactly had many opportunities to brush up on dating terms, and this one was completely new to her.**

**"****What's the underwear test?"**

**"****Well... If a girl really wants to know what her man is made of she can ask him to come into the store while she shops for underwear or other personal stuff, if he stays with you the entire time then he passes, I've gotta see this!" And so it was that Blake ended up following Violet and Yang into the store, they hid behind a shelf and watched Ruby looking through bras, and there was Onyx, holding two others, even Yang was impressed, she had been sure that Onyx would make a break for it, ten minutes later Ruby and Onyx checked Ruby's purchases out, and when Ruby asked him to carry this bag as well, he did it without complaint.**

**"****_Damn, _****that boy has to be totally head over heels, he passed with flying colors!" Violet was visibly awed, Blake was impressed as well, she was excellent at reading people and Onyx had been on the verge of bolting three times, each time all it took was one look at Ruby before he settled back down.**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Onyx subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief as they entered a music store, he wasn't sure if even his love for Ruby would have allowed him to withstand another store like the last one. ****_It was worth it _****his heart insisted as he watched Ruby's joyful expression as she took off at blinding speed, and a shower of rose petals, for the racks of CDs and music chips, which were meant to be inserted into a scroll in order for the music stored inside to play. Onyx walked over and began to look through the racks of music that Ruby was examining with excitement.**

**"****See anything you like?" Onyx asked.**

**Ruby's smile caused Onyx's heart to skip a beat. "Yeah! This place has some good stuff, they've even got a collection of Weiss' songs on music chip."**

**Onyx blinked in surprize. "Weiss Schnee, the Ice Queen, sings? Is she any good?"**

**Ruby nodded. "Yeah! Her voice is really pretty, but a lot of her songs are kinda sad."**

**"****Well if you want it go ahead, I'll pay."**

**"****Thanks, Onyx."**

**(Ruby's POV) **

**Ruby was beginning to get hungry, a quick look at her Scroll told her that it was seven o'clock. "Hey, Onyx, where do you want to eat?"**

**"****Why don't we go with burgers?"**

**"****Sure." They got the chip of Weiss' songs and Ruby stuck it into her Scroll's chip slot, then she plugged in a pair of earbuds, stuck one in her ear and offered the other to Onyx, he took it and plugged it into his ear, they must have looked silly, she mused, the tall boy and the short girl connected by a pair of earbuds, she pressed play and they walked to the food court holding hands.**

**(Blake's POV)**

**"****Okay, ****_that _****is cute, am I right Yang?" Violet had started talking again.**

**"****Well... Yeah, it is, it's starting to look like you guys are right, but I'm still going to keep an eye on them, just in case he tries something after dinner, if he tries to cop a feel on Ruby he can say goodbye to his nuts."**

**"****Okay, But I'm done, I'm going to get something to eat, then I'm heading back to Beacon, how about you Violet?" Blake asked.**

**"****As sweet as watching those two being gonzo over each other is, I'm going with Ninja Girl, good night Firebrand."**

**(Ruby's POV)**

**Ruby's cheeseburger was delicious, and her strawberry shake was incredible, Onyx had chosen a burger place at random from the four that were in the huge food court, and he had apparently chosen well, Ruby looked over at her companion and giggled, he had ketchup on his face and he didn't notice.**

**"****Wait, Onyx, you've got a little... Let me get it." Feeling bold, Ruby reached over and wiped the ketchup off with her finger, then, while Onyx watched, she stuck her finger in her mouth and licked it clean, Onyx's gaze raised from her mouth to her eyes and Ruby smiled sweetly, a trickle of blood leaked from Onyx's nose, he wiped it off with a napkin, and they finished their food.**

**"****Let's head back to Beacon, okay?"**

**"****Sounds good."**

**The duo left the mall and flagged down a taxi which they took to the airship port, the last of the airships was scheduled to leave in fifteen minutes, they got on and Ruby headed for the bathroom, Onyx stood outside the door to wait while she did her business and freshened her lipgloss, Onyx ****_had _****said he liked it.**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Ruby came out of the bathroom and smiled at him, he had to restrain the urge to kiss her, she was just so perfect, in his eyes there was nobody more beautiful than Ruby Rose, but he wasn't going to waste their first kiss, it had to be just right. They sat together, holding hands, Ruby's head leaning against his shoulder. Onyx became aware that they were being watched, he caught a flash of long blond hair and smiled, Yang, making sure he wasn't trying anything perverted with her little sister, she was worried for nothing, he wasn't planning anything like that for a ****_long _****time, like multiple years, and only, of course, if Ruby gave him permission.**

**When the airship landed Ruby and Onyx disembarked.**

**"****Hey, Ruby, do you want to see a good place for stargazing?" Onyx asked the young reaper.**

**"****Sure."**

**The couple walked off to Beacon Cliff, five minutes later, lying on their backs in the grass above the Emerald Forest they watched the stars twinkle in the night sky, Remnant's shattered moon hanging above them half full.**

**They lay there in silence, their fingers intertwined for a full thirty minutes, then Ruby sat up, Onyx followed suit, Ruby let go of his hand and placed hers at the small of his back, her head was tilted up to him, her lips slightly parted, Onyx closed the rest of the space between them, his hand curled behind her neck as their lips touched, and he kissed her softly, she returned the kiss with vigor, and as her eyes closed in pleasure, he deepened the kiss, her lips were soft and tasted of strawberries, currents of electricity seemed to be coursing from their joined mouths all over his body, they faded away when they broke apart, staring into each other's eyes.**

**"****I love you." Onyx confessed.**

**Ruby smiled. "I love you too." She replied, then she kissed him again and they stood up, brushing each other off, they walked back to the dorms hand in hand.**

* * *

><p><strong>(Author's Note: This chapter was pure fluff, don't worry, things will start getting serious soon, or, more serious than this chapter, which I suppose isn't saying too much, as always, Read, Review, and Enjoy.)<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: Fire and Ice**

**(Derek's POV, warehouse hideout)**

**Derek was smiling as he entered the old, not so abandoned warehouse where Cinder and her lackeys had set up shop, his nephew seemed to be adjusting well to life in Vale, he'd even found himself a girlfriend, Beacon's other prodigy, Ruby Rose, daughter of Summer Rose, that particular fact would make it ****_so _****much more satisfying when he killed the girl, not only would it break Onyx like a glass statue dropped off a seventh story window, it would be rewarding on it's own to kill the last member of the Rose family, her mother in particular had been a distinct impediment to ****_their _****plans for years, the only regret he'd had when the report came in of her death defending a village from the Grimm was that he hadn't at least been able to see it himself, but now, as if Fate had decided to give him a second chance, he was handed her daughter, first, he would kill the Rose girl, then once his nephew was little more than a broken husk, Derek would kill him, and have the only thing he'd ever wanted: ****_Power_****.**

**(Julius' POV, Team VOAJ's dorm)**

**Julius woke in the middle of the night to hear his partner sneak into the team's dorm.**

**"****How was your date with Miss Rose?" Julius asked, surprising Onyx.**

**"****Great, it was everything I'd hoped for."**

**"****Good to hear, however, I hope your relationship doesn't affect either of your schoolwork, Ruby is a Team leader, and she cannot afford to let her grades slip."**

**Onyx nodded. "I know, and it won't, I can promise that."**

**"****Good, well then I wish you luck, and good night." With that, Julius fell promptly back to sleep.**

**(Weiss' POV, the next morning)**

**"****Ruby, stop fidgeting, you're embarrassing yourself." Weiss had finally lost her patience with her partner, they were sitting down for breakfast, and the weapon loving prodigy was seemingly incapable of sitting still, she kept tapping her foot and her fingers, toying with her hair, and occasionally letting out a small, quickly suppressed, laugh, the reason for the young leader's restless behavior became clear when Team VOAJ entered the cafeteria, the red clad scythe wielder took one look at the other team's resident brawler and turned as red as her cloak, though her smile widened into a full fledged grin and she waved to the object of her affections, who smiled and waved back, once Team VOAJ had loaded their trays with food they joined Team RWBY at their table, Onyx took the seat next to Ruby, and Julius sat next to Weiss, Violet and Alex took seats on the other side of the table with Blake and Yang, but everyone was watching Onyx and Ruby as he put his hand on the small of her back and kissed her lightly on the lips.**

**"****Good morning Beautiful." Onyx greeted his girlfriend, who smiled up at him and returned the greeting, before the couple turned back to their friends as if nothing unusual had happened.**

**"****So, does anyone know where JNPR is?" Ruby asked, the only signs that things had changed between her and Onyx since yesterday were his arm still curled around her waist, and the spots of pink high on her cheeks. Alex was smiling in satisfaction, Blake looked amused (which was the most emotion Weiss had seen displayed on the bow wearing girl's face), Yang, surprisingly, hadn't yet put her fist through Onyx's face, like she had when one of the second year students had hit on her sister, Weiss figured that she had decided that Onyx, at least, was worthy of a chance.**

**Nobody had a chance to answer Ruby's question, as the third part of their little group hurried into the cafeteria, Weiss frowned, she expected this kind of lateness from Jaune and Nora, but Pyrrha and Ren were a different story, she pushed the thought from her mind, it wasn't her business what had kept Team JNPR from their breakfasts, once they had their food they joined the group, the first thing they noticed, of course, was Onyx and Ruby, who were eating their breakfast, and holding hands.**

**To Weiss, Yang, and Ruby's surprise, Pyrrha turned to the others. "Pay up." The red haired Spartan made a 'gimme' motion with her hands.**

**Needless to say, Weiss was shocked that Pyrrha, ****_Pyrrha_****, the reasonable, practical, level headed member of Team JNPR had evidently set up a betting pool with all of their friends, except Weiss, Yang, and, of course, Onyx and Ruby, as everyone, including, to Weiss' further shock, Julius, began exchanging money.**

**"****What is this? You were ****_betting _****on them?" Weiss asked, slightly affronted.**

**Pyrrha laughed. "Yes, it's a Mistralian tradition for teens to make wagers when their friends begin to show romantic interest in each other, we bet on when they would finally get together, Julius, Alex, Ren, Blake, and Nora all bet on them getting together within the first week, so they get to divide the the pot between them, the pot was six hundred Lien, so each winner gets one hundred and twenty Lien."**

**Ruby turned to her boyfriend in surprise. "You ****_knew _****about this?"**

**Onyx shook his head, a grin on his face. "No, but I expected it, the betters aren't allowed to tell either of those who are being bet on that it the pool was going on, as that might influence the outcome, so we got kept in the dark, I'm assuming Yang and Weiss weren't told because Weiss would react exactly as she is now, and Yang would probably have put someone through a wall if they asked her to bet on her sister's love life, though I wouldn't be surprised to hear about other pools going on already." Alex and Pyrrha both suddenly looked guilty. **

**Their first classes were starting soon and Weiss walked off, her head buzzing, ****_they bet on people's relationships? What a barbaric custom. _****Julius caught up to the fuming heiress.**

**"****What's wrong Weiss?" The Gold Heir asked.**

**"****It's that ridiculous tradition, ****_why _****would people want to bet on whether or not their friends start dating?"**

**"****Well, it's fun, and it doesn't hurt them, Pyrrha told me it's considered a show of support for a relationship, since nobody bets that a couple won't get together, just when it will happen."**

**"****You bet on your partner and mine getting together within the first week of school."**

**"****Yes, I could tell that, barring a serious fight, they would get together fairly quickly, so I bet on one week."**

**"****Are you participating in other betting pools?" Weiss had calmed down some, and was simply asking out of curiosity, she still didn't approve of the concept, and she refused to participate, but Julius was right, nobody was getting hurt in this.**

**"****Yes, Pyrrha and Jaune, Ren and Nora, and Violet and Alex." That last one caught Weiss by surprise. "Your teammates? Why them?"**

**Julius' grin, the same one she hadn't seen in three years, the one that told anyone who saw it that there was mischief in the making, made a warm sensation form in the pit of Weiss' stomach, she and Julius had been best friends since childhood, and that grin was associated with some of her fondest memories. "Alex told me himself that he likes her, apparently Onyx isn't very good with relationship advice."**

**"****And why did he think you would be any better?"**

**"****Oh, he thought that we were going out, of course, I told him that we were just friends from childhood."**

**For some strange reason this annoyed Weiss, but she didn't look too closely into it as she responded. "Of course." Was that a flicker of disappointment in his eyes? ****_No, ridiculous, we are nothing but friends, that's all we can _****ever ****_be. _****Weiss pushed the thought from her mind.**

**(Julius' POV)**

**Julius was confused, why had Weiss' face closed off like that? It had only been for a second, her expression had become totally blank for that one moment, then she was back to normal.**

**"****Weiss? Are you alright?" The young heir asked, concerned.**

**"****I'm fine, thank you." She was lying, but Julius knew he would never be able to get her to tell him why by pressing her, so he let it slide, they reached Weiss' class and she walked inside without saying goodbye, Julius stared at the door for a few seconds before continuing on to his own class.**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Onyx's first class was combat training, and what's more he was the first up, he was set to fight Ren, the green clad martial artist stood with his dual, bladed green automatics, named Stormflower, held in front of him, Onyx had Rise and Fall extended over his fists, and he'd taken a low stance, Onyx would have to get close to his opponent before he had a chance to eat through Onyx's aura with the training bullets loaded into his guns, this would be harder than it sounded, as Ren was one of the fastest and most agile fighters that Onyx knew, on top of that, his hand to hand skills were second only to Yang or Onyx, and his aura control was better than any other first year's, but he still needed to work on his stamina, so Onyx planned to wear him out.**

**(Ren's POV)**

**Goodwitch prepared to start the match. "Onyx Blanch of Team VOAJ, vs. Lie Ren of Team JNPR. Begin!" Both boys immediately sprang into action, Ren fired a sustained burst from his guns, Onyx deftly rolled out of the way, though he was still clipped by a couple of training rounds, then the black haired brawler charged, and, setting Fall to electricity, returned fire, Ren rolled out of the way, immediately afterward he was forced to leap from his crouch over Onyx's head, he aimed his guns at Onyx from above, but the brawler had set Rise to wind, and he blasted himself sideways, out of the way, when Ren landed he was forced to block Onyx's kick with his forearm, then the next kick with the same foot, and a fiery right straight which he blocked with the left Stormflower, Onyx pressed the attack, not allowing his friend the chance to retreat, Ren used his guns and his body to defend against a flurry of punches, elbow strikes, knees, and kicks, the two fighters were both fighting flawlessly, suddenly, Ren performed a back handspring to gain distance from his opponent, and opened fire on him, however, Onyx launched himself into the air with a blast of wind from Rise, in midair, Onyx returned fire with Fall, Ren rolled forward to avoid the barrage, and when Onyx landed, Ren aimed a kick at the back of his head, which he dodged as if he had eyes in the back of his head, which, considering his Semblance, he very nearly did. When Onyx turned to face Ren his eyes were closed, he was finally using all his power, Ren charged, both his guns were out of ammo, and so was Fall, which meant that Ren was at a disadvantage in the range department, Rise could be used at ranges of up to fifteen feet, Onyx met the charge head on, Ren slashed his blades at Onyx, who simply dodged each strike, with his eyes closed Onyx had near perfect perception of his surroundings, and he used that to full effect in his defence, Ren knew that he couldn't keep this up indefinitely, but neither could he, Ren's exertions were beginning to take their toll, he could feel his muscles burning and he was covered in sweat, just when Ren began to feel his movements slow Onyx struck, he didn't use any Dust in his strikes and a vein was popping up on his forehead from the strain of his Semblance, the two boys scored blow after blow on each other, then there was a click, and Rise glowed purple, lightning Dust, Ren observed, the green clad boy had one last trick up his sleeve, as Onyx threw his punch Ren went into a rapid spin, Stormflower extended outward, the blades struck Onyx on the chest three times, and the spin moved Ren a few inches to the left, causing the punch to fly past, harmless. The black haired brawler collapsed and the match was over, Ren quickly followed his friend into dreamland, his exhausted eyelids dropping like guillotines.**

**(Goodwitch's POV)**

**Glynda looked on as two of her best first year students fought their hearts out, she knew that Mr. Lie, and Mr. Blanch were good friends but that didn't seem to slow either of them down one bit, in fact, the combat teacher guessed, the fact that they were friends made this fight even more intense, because they both felt that anything less than their best would be an insult to their opponent. When the last exchange occurred, Glynda, like everyone else in the room was watching with rapt attention, she couldn't help being a little proud of both boys, that had been an excellent match, though both of them would probably need some time in the infirmary for exhaustion, Mr. Lie had actually fallen asleep standing up.**

**"****The match is over, the winner is Lie Ren, now, could Miss Valkyrie, Mr. Arc, and Miss Rose please take these two to the infirmary, I would have asked Mr. Garnet to take Mr. Blanch, but his match is next."**

**(Ruby's POV)**

**Ruby and Jaune lifted Onyx between them, and Nora picked up Ren with surprising gentleness, the normally bubbly hammer wielder had stopped her usual skip, and was walking slowly to avoid jostling the sleeping boy in her arms.**

**"****You really care for him." Ruby observed.**

**Nora nodded, her normal wide smile returning. "Ren and I have been friends since we were little kids, he's my best friend, he's the only person in my life who's never been overwhelmed by me, yeah, I know I can be a bit much sometimes, but Ren always just lets it flow over him like a wave over a rock, no matter how many waves hit the rock, it never moves, it might get changed, or worn down, but it doesn't move an inch, that's Ren, he's always just been there, he keeps me from going too overboard, and I keep him from locking himself in his shell and not interacting with anyone, its a symbi-symba... whatever those things are called."**

**"****Symbiotic relationship?" Jaune suggested.**

**Nora nodded. "That's it! We have a symbiotic relationship, neither of us can really function properly without the other in our life."**

**Ruby thought this was pretty sweet. "So.. How long have you been...?"**

**Nora blushed. "Oh! We're not ****_together _****together, he's just my best friend, besides, I don't think he likes me like that."**

**"****Oh." Ruby cursed her social awkwardness, maybe if she was a little better at talking to people, she would know what to say to help get rid of the naked pain that showed in Nora's teal eyes. The group made their way to the infirmary in uncomfortable silence. When they arrived Ruby and Jaune put Onyx on a bed and Nora set Ren down on one of the other beds, the infirmary at Beacon was huge, it had to be, it was the medical facility for the world's most prolific Hunter academy, it got patients with everything from life threatening injuries to exhaustion.**

**A nurse showed up and saw the group. "What do we have?"**

**"****They had a match in combat class and they're both exhausted." Jaune reported.**

**The nurse nodded. "Alright. You three can go back to your classes."**

**"****Um.. Could you notify me when Onyx wakes up? I'm his girlfriend." Ruby explained.**

**"****And could you tell us when Ren wakes up? I'm his leader, and Nora is his partner."**

**The nurse nodded. "They should only be out for a few hours anyway, sure I'll make sure to notify the three of you."**

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><p><strong>(Author's Note: please Read, Review, and Enjoy.)<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter ten: Mission begins**

**(Onyx's POV, two weeks later)**

**Onyx and Ruby were in the forges, looking over their plans for a broadsword that would shift into an uzi, when their Scrolls buzzed at the same time, they both received texts summoning them to Ozpin's office. Reluctantly, the two weaponsmiths rolled up the plans and stowed them in Ruby's bag, which she used to carry blueprints and materials when she planned on making something.**

**"****I wonder what Ozpin wants the two of us for?" Onyx wondered.**

**"****Don't know, if it was just me, I'd think that he wanted to talk about something related to Team RWBY, but that doesn't make sense with you there, and it can't be something to do with RWBY and VOAJ together, because if it was, then Violet would have gotten the call, not you." Ruby was deep in thought for a few seconds, before shrugging and saying. "Oh, well, it looks like the only way we can find out is if we go see."**

**With that, Ruby grabbed Onyx's hand and they headed off to the Headmaster's office.**

**(Ozpin's POV)**

**Professor Ozpin watched as Onyx Blanch and Ruby Rose walked out of the elevator into his office, their clothing told him where they'd been when he'd sent them the texts requesting their presence, the boy was dressed in gray cargo pants, a black tank top undershirt, and black sneakers, a pair of welding goggles peeked out of his black hair, the girl was dressed in ratty old jeans, red sneakers, and a dark red longsleeve shirt, the clothes that they always wore when they were working on one of their frequent forging projects, the analytical professor also took note of their demeanor, Onyx's piercing blue eyes were slightly narrowed as he looked a Ozpin, he was trying to figure out why they had been called here, by contrast, Ruby's silver eyes were wide and fascinated, taking in the office, which neither teen had seen before, Ozpin felt a spark of amusement as the young girl's hand unconsciously reached towards her companion's, though she stopped herself and pulled her hand away when her index finger touched the back of Onyx's hand.**

**When the couple was standing in front of the headmaster's desk, he spoke to them for the first time.**

**"****I'm sure you both are wondering why I've called the two of you here, it's simple: I am going to give the two of you a mission." Ozpin smiled slightly as both of his students' faces changed from curiosity to shock.**

**"****Why us? Not only are we on separate teams, we're first year students, shouldn't we be getting our first mission at the start of the Vytal Festival?" Onyx asked.**

**"****Normally yes, those would be legitimate questions, however, the reason I've asked the two of you to take the mission is because the goal is to find information on one Derek Blanch." Ruby yelped in surprise, but Onyx's expression turned as dark as his name.**

**"****How do you know that name?" The teen demanded.**

**"****My boy, I'm the Headmaster of this school for a very good reason, and there is very little I ****_don't _****know about my students." Ozpin calmly took a sip of his coffee.**

**"****What's the mission Professor?" Ruby asked, suddenly all business.**

**"****One of my informants in a nearby village claims to have seen a man matching Derek's description meeting Roman Torchwick in the back of a bar my contact owns two days ago, they're both already gone, but they left behind several low class thugs and a minor lieutenant of Torchwick's to accomplish some task, yours is to find out what they are attempting to do, and stop them from accomplishing their goal."**

**"****When do we leave?" Onyx asked.**

**"****Immediately after you've prepared for the trip, I have a Dustcopter waiting for you at the landing area, good luck to the both of you."**

**(Ruby's POV)**

**Ruby was worried about her boyfriend, on the elevator ride down from Ozpin's office, Onyx was totally silent, deep in thought, and they weren't good thoughts either, he was thinking about his parents' deaths, Ruby knew him, she also knew that the best way to snap him out of dark thoughts was to remind him that he wasn't alone, so the young reaper wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug, after a few seconds Ruby's efforts were rewarded by Onyx's arms enfolding her in his own warm embrace, he was back.**

**When the elevator doors opened they let go of each other and headed to their Dorms to pack.**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Onyx waited for Ruby on the landing platform, he was dressed in his combat clothes, Rise and Fall were retracted on his wrists, a duffel bag was at his feet.**

**"****Hey, Onyx!" Ruby dashed over, red cloak flapping behind her, she too was dressed for battle, in her black and red combat dress, Crescent Rose in its inactive form clipped to her back, she held a pair of red suitcases as she ran, Onyx couldn't help but smile at the sight of his girlfriend, just looking at her brightened his day, and being apart from her, even if it was just in separate dorms that were right down the hall from each other, put a cold lump in the pit of his stomach that vanished the instant he was near her again.**

**When Ruby stopped in front of him, Onyx was treated to the pure, innocent smile that never failed to make his heartbeat accelerate, though this one was a bit sheepish. "Sorry I kept you waiting."**

**Onyx returned the smile. "You were preparing for a mission, I would have been more worried if you got here before me without having done any preparation than if you come a few minutes after me with everything you need. Come on, it's time to go."**

**They boarded the Dustcopter and sat down, they put on the headsets the pilot passed back to them.**

**"****_Alright, you two, my name is Wolf, and I will be your pilot for this flight, it's two hours to the village by air, so make yourselves comfortable, Professor Ozpin told me that your mission will probably take multiple days, so when you need to be picked up, just call my Scroll number, I'm sending it to your Scrolls now." _****The pilot's voice came over the headsets. Sure enough their Scrolls buzzed, showing an ID number, the message was one word: Wolf. They added the pilot's number to their contact lists and Ruby thanked him.**

**"****_No problem Kid, good luck on your mission."_**

**They landed outside the town of Vorse, and got out of the chopper with a quick thank you to the pilot. The meeting with the contact wasn't until tomorrow, so Onyx and Ruby decided to explore the town, learn their way around the place, maybe ask some question of the locals.**

**(Ruby's POV)**

**Ruby's heart was beating extra fast, she was on a mission, ****_alone,_****with Onyx, Ozpin had granted her the two strongest desires she had, she was on a mission, and she had alone time with her boyfriend, sure, she was aware that they had a job to do, and that they likely wouldn't have any romantic moments, but she didn't care, this was their job now, and the fact that they could do that job together was enough for her.**

**(Unknown POV)**

**The watcher was careful not to look directly at the boy and girl he was following, if what the boy's uncle had said was true, he had a powerful sensory Semblance, and as such his aura's sensory enhancements would be stronger than normal, heck, his natural senses would probably be sharper too, if he felt the watcher staring at him the watcher's cover would be blown, and he couldn't allow that to happen, his life was depending on his ability to trail the teens undetected, and he was very good at what he did.**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Onyx became aware that they were being watched as he leaned against a wall while Ruby munched obliviously on a plate sized cookie they'd bought after Ruby had used her puppy dog eyes on Onyx, it had taken exactly three seconds for the big, teary silver eyes and quivering lower lip to erode his willpower, no human expression should hold that much power, or be that freaking adorable, Onyx thought idly as he kept his eyes on his girlfriend, using his peripheral vision to try to spot their stalker, a short, slim man with stringy brown hair under a dark blue cap, wearing a green t-shirt and faded jeans, tilted his head slightly and his eyes flickered in their general direction, as he leaned against a wall on the other side of the street, and further down it, apparently reading a book, though Onyx noticed his eyes were moving in an erratic fashion, rather than straight left to right, he was only pretending to read, every once in a while the stalker's eyes flicked over in their general direction, never directly at either of them, ****_smart_****Onyx thought ****_if he'd looked at either of us directly we would have felt it, but he's just keeping us in his range of vision, like I'm doing to him right now _****a slight upward twitch of his lips was the only sign of his satisfaction at having spotted the stalker.**

**"****C'mere Rubes." Onyx held his arms out for a hug, which Ruby immediately gave him, her head against his chest, Ruby whispered. "What is it?" Onyx had never called Ruby anything other than Ruby, or if he was being playful, Miss Rose, so Onyx knew that changing that during a mission would be enough of a signal that he had something to say without alerting anyone around them, Onyx bent down and kissed the top of her head, before whispering into her hair.**

**"****Don't react to this... We're being watched, there's a man about twelve feet away, brown hair green shirt, reading a book, he's been looking at us in a way that would prevent us from sensing his presence, fortunately, he's underestimated me, he's within my Semblance range, and I've been feeling his presence for a while, but I just now spotted him, he doesn't seem armed, we could take him and try to get something out of him, but we'd need to catch him off guard, and that probably won't be easy, he looks like the cautious type, so we need a strategy."**

**Ruby smiled up at him, and said, cheerfully, as if he'd just suggested they go get something to eat. "Got ya, leave the place to me, we both know that if you tried to find somewhere, it would be a disaster." ****_Translation: Leave the plan to me, and be ready for trouble. _****Onyx smiled down at his Rose.**

**"****Of course." They both wrapped an arm around the other's waist and began walking down the street again.**

**(Watcher's POV)**

**The Watcher dropped his book and removed his cap, then he opened the mail tube he'd stolen to use as storage, the tubes were wonders of modern science, they started out the size of a drinking straw, but they could expand to the size of a tennis ball tube, and they could hold items that really shouldn't fit in such a confined space without damaging them in the slightest, he'd once had a friend receive a live cat in a mail tube and the creature had actually fallen asleep in the tube and had come out without even a scratch, the Watcher pulled a ratty greatcoat out of his mail tube and pulled it on, then he took out a tiny packet of glittery white Dust which he poured a little of into his hand before activating it with his aura and tossing it over his head, a few vague sparkles later and his facial features were slightly different, his nose was longer, his cheekbones lower, his jaw a little squarer, his hair got an orange tint, and got a little more grey in it, the packet contained illusion Dust, his features hadn't actually changed, they just looked like they did. The Watcher took off after his targets, they were heading in the direction he'd been told to expect them to go, until they suddenly cut down a side street, panicking slightly, the Watcher turned down the road, to only find the boy, his blue eyes glittering with amusement as he pointed silently at something behind the Watcher, dumbly, the man turned to see a cloud of rose petals and a the metal shaft of a scythe before it slammed into his head and knocked him unconscious.**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Onyx looked down at the unremarkable man lying unconscious at his feet, once he'd been knocked out, his features had dissolved and became about as bland as it was naturally possible to be, his short brown hair was stringy and limp, his face was so average that it was ridiculous, he had no identifying marks, other than the large bruise on his forehead from Crescent Rose's shaft, he wasn't handsome, or ugly, or anything other than unremarkable, Onyx shook himself from his examination of the stalker's face, picked the man up and slung him over his broad shoulder.**

**"****Nice job Ruby." Onyx congratulated, the girl bowed dramatically and said in an equally dramatic voice.**

**"****One does one's best." Before breaking into giggles at her own silliness, the duo carried the unconscious man all the way to their hotel, which had been paid for by Beacon, one room, two beds, they used the stalker's packet of illusion Dust to make the unconscious man look like a large piece of luggage, they'd been provided with temporary credentials so proving who they were to the hotel clerk wasn't very hard, once in their room, they searched the man thoroughly, and Ruby supplied a pair of handcuffs to secure their prisoner to a pipe in the bathroom.**

**"****Do I even want to know where you got the handcuffs?" Onyx asked cautiously.**

**"****Yang had them in her sock drawer."**

**"****Why am I not surprised?"**

**"****I don't know, I was pretty surprised, I mean, who keeps handcuffs in a sock drawer?" Ruby asked, genuinely confused. Onyx blinked at her for a few seconds, then he burst out laughing, he kept howling with merriment until he ran out of breath, then he took two deep, calming breaths.**

**"****Sometimes I forget how innocent you can be, Ruby, those handcuffs were meant for more... recreational purposes."**

**Ruby blinked, thought about it, then turned bright red. "Oh..." Her voice went quiet and embarrassed, then she went and handcuffed the stalker to a thick pipe, and washed her hands thoroughly in the sink muttering something about "Yang Cooties" Onyx tried very hard not to laugh again, he succeeded, barely.**

**(Watcher's POV)**

**Watcher woke up to see the little red cloaked girl sitting on a stool across from him, her partner was nowhere to be found, both of Watcher's hands had been handcuffed, and the chain hooked on a pipe, when the girl saw that he was awake she called out the door of what Watcher realized was a hotel bathroom. "Onyx, he's awake!"**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Onyx walked into the bathroom.**

**"****Ruby, could you please wait outside, I'm going to be doing some stuff that I really don't want you to see, so could you please keep watch, just in case?" Ruby looked like she was about to argue, but took one look into his eyes and decided to just do as he asked. Once Ruby was out of the bathroom, Onyx pulled a small device from his pocket, and placed it next to the sink.**

**"****What's your name?" Onyx asked.**

**"****Davin Greengrass." **

**"****Do you know what this is, Davin?" The black haired brawler asked casually as he switched the device on, his voice sounded slightly off in his ears. The man shook his head.**

**"****It's a noise canceller, the louder the sound, the more muffled it is, you could scream your lungs out, and Ruby wouldn't hear it from the other side of that door." Onyx informed the stalker, again keeping his voice casual.**

**"****I made it myself, you know, first time I used it, I set off a bunch of fireworks in my history teacher's office... do you know how weird it was to watch silent fireworks in an enclosed space? Pretty weird. Now, I don't really want to see what a silent screaming man looks like, so... are you going to tell me what I want to know, or will I have to be more persuasive?"**

**"****You're just a kid, you don't have gu..." The rest of his sentence was in perfect silence, as the noise canceller did it's job, muffling the scream that tried to tear out of the stalker's throat, as Onyx delivered an aura enhanced stomp to the man's left knee, shattering the joint.**

**"****Do I need to ask again, or are you convinced that I do infact have the guts to do this?"**

**"****Screw you."**

**"****Wrong answer Davin." Onyx broke the other knee, then he kicked the man in the gut, hard, but without aura, he wasn't trying to kill him after all, again the noise canceller did it's job well, until Davin started to cough, which wasn't quite loud enough to get caught by the canceller.**

**"****Sit up." Onyx demanded coldly, when the man wasn't quite fast enough, Onyx punched him in the face. "Sit up." He repeated, this time, the man sat up, using the wall to support himself.**

**"****I'm getting impatient, Davin, so unless you want me to get creative, you'd better answer my questions."**

**Davin looked scared, Onyx had learned that in interrogation the subject could always come up with something worse than what you are actually capable of, he also knew that a calm exterior during torture was far more intimidating than shouting, besides, the noise canceller would muffle any sound louder than normal speaking volume.**

**They stared into each other's eyes for a long moment, terrified pale green orbs met eyes like chips of blue ice that held no kindness, no mercy, and no remorse, Davin broke.**

**"****I'll talk, please, don't hurt me anymore!"**

**"****Good, now, Roman Torchwick and Derek Blanch met in this town not so long ago, correct?"**

**The frantic man nodded eagerly. "Yes, Torchwick brought a bunch of goons, then he and Blanch left town, before they did, your Uncle told me to keep an eye out for you and your girl, I don't know how he knew you would be coming."**

**"****Not important, we already knew that Torchwick and Blanch weren't in town, what we want to know about is what they left the goons behind for, who their lieutenant is, and how many there are, and you ****_will _****tell us, Davin."**

**"****I-I don't know all the details, just that they're looking for some kind of rare Dust in the countryside, there are about eighty guys out there, spread out, and they're led by this complete freak who calls himself Ragnarok, carries a big-ass sword, I don't know what it does exactly, but but it definitely has at least one other form."**

**"****Good Davin, this is all good information, now, is there anything else,?"**

**"****Are you going to let me go?"**

**"****Probably not, but don't worry, we won't kill you, we'll just hand you over to Beacon's Witness Protection program, for witnesses in Human Hunting cases, they can keep you safe, unlike the police, whom Torchwick or my Uncle could just bribe out of the way, or in Derek's case, bypass entirely by Astral Projecting directly into your cell, and you know what they'd do to you if they got you."**

**Davin turned as green as his last name, it was clear that he knew exactly what they would do, and it was very far from pretty, Onyx switched off the sound canceller.**

**"****If you promise not to escape, we can leave you here while we go, and before that, Ruby! Get in here!" Davin passed out as Ruby opened the door and stopped when she saw the broken man on the bathroom floor.**

**"****Onyx... What did you do?!"**

**"****I tortured him for information, he wouldn't talk unless I did, his injuries are too extensive for me to heal on my own, so I need your help, can you do that?"**

**Ruby looked into Onyx's eyes and she shuddered at what she saw there, Onyx's whole world turned cold, and he could actually feel his heart break, he had scared her off after only two weeks, there was no way she could love this part of him, the cold, merciless part that had grown in him ever since his parents' deaths, the part of him that could never stop until he'd gotten bloody revenge for the murder that had stolen his innocence, and left him alone. But now, he was truly alone, without Ruby he only had one purpose for living, and after he accomplished it he would be empty, dead, even if his mind and body still worked.**

**"****Just help me heal him, then you can get Wolf to take you back to Beacon, tell the others that I'm sorry." Onyx's voice came out lifeless and dull as he turned to the man he'd probably crippled for life, and, with a blaze of furious grey energy, began to attempt to repair the damage he'd caused, until a small fist crashed into the side of his head, it was enough for him to turn his attention to Ruby, who, rather than being disgusted was furious.**

**"****Jerk! How could you think that I would just abandon you like that?! How the ****_hell _****do you get the right to decide that you can just walk away from your friends? Your team? ****_Me?!_****"**

**Onyx looked up at Ruby from his place on his knees, a painful mixture of fear, hope, and confusion burned like lava in his gut.**

**"****Y-you, don't hate me?"**

**"****No, I don't hate you, dummy, I could never hate you, ****_never_****."**

**"****But you don't love me anymore."**

**(Ruby's POV)**

**Ruby was horrified, she'd seen Onyx fight, he killed Grimm with a simple, practical brutality that not even Yang could match, and he hardly showed more mercy to his fellow classmates in sparring, always finishing his fights swiftly and brutally, but this was ****_torture_****, her sweet, caring boyfriend had tortured a man less than eight feet away from her, while she'd stood guard outside. Unfortunately, Onyx saw her horror, and the light in his eyes, already dimmed from the moral struggle he must have been waging in his head, died completely, leaving his face lifeless, broken, and haunted, then he turned to the unconscious man and spoke, his voice nearly broke her heart, it was as empty of life as his expression.**

**"****Just help me heal him, then you can get Wolf to take you back to Beacon, tell the others that I'm sorry."**

**Suddenly Ruby's horror and pain turned into rage, how dare he abandon his friends, abandon ****_her! _****No, he was going to get a piece of her mind for being so stupid and selfish.**

**"****Jerk! How could you think that I would just abandon you like that?! How the ****_hell _****do you get the right to decide that you can just walk away from your friends? Your team? ****_Me?!_****"**

**Her outburst had a definite effect on Onyx, the black haired brawler looked up at the red and black themed reaper, his eyes shining with a desperate hope, mixed with fear and confusion to create a blend of emotions that nearly made Ruby cry just to see them.**

**"****Y-you don't hate me?" Onyx's voice was like that of a young boy asking if Santa was real, he wanted a yes, but he still believed that the answer was no. Ruby's rage died away in the face of that cracked, almost childlike hope. Acting on instinct, she she knelt on Onyx's knees and pulled him into a comforting hug, her arms around his chest, and her head on his shoulder.**

**"****No, I don't hate you, dummy, I could never hate you, ****_never_****."**

**The broken note worked it's way back into his voice.**

**"****But you don't love me anymore, you can't." Ruby raised her head so that they were face to face, and not quite eye to eye.**

**"****Why can't I? You know my past, you know that I want revenge on the Grimm just as much as you do on your Uncle, I know why you did what you did, I won't lie, the idea of you torturing another person, even a bad guy, horrifies me, but I can accept that as part of who you are, your life is consumed by your hatred for your Uncle, and to be honest it sometimes makes me feel as if there's no room for me in your world, but I ****_do_****love you, so much so that it hurts when you are hurting and one of your smiles can light up my entire day."**

**"****I don't deserve you."**

**"****Well then its a good thing that it's not your decision to make, we have to make it together, and I'm not letting you go, do you understand?" Ruby retorted with a playful grin.**

**A smile began forming on Onyx's face that set his amazing, sky blue eyes burning with azure fire, and started a bonfire in her belly of attraction and nerves with a healthy dose of love added in.**

**"****So... Are you going to help me heal him, or just stay in my lap forever, because I'm good with either option right about now." Ruby laughed, but blushed, and chewed her bottom lip.**

**"****You really need to stop doing that, it's not healthy." Onyx told her.**

**Ruby stopped, then she put her hands on his chest and said. "I think I'll do both." Then she began to radiate dark red energy that she poured into Onyx's own reserves, and Onyx used the spare energy to heal Davin, until both his legs were functional and and he was asleep, rather than unconscious. Ruby was exhausted, Onyx was too, but Ruby was literally falling asleep on his shoulder, gently, Onyx picked Ruby up and carried her bridal style to the nearest bed, where he laid her down and removed her boots for her, she just barely managed a soft "goodnight" when she dropped almost immediately to sleep, Onyx managed to struggle out of his own boots, shrug off his jacket, and pull his shirt off before dropping onto the other bed, and falling asleep, his body, mind and soul completely exhausted by the events of the past hour and a half.**

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><p><strong>(Author's Note: This chapter explores a darker side of Onyx, in many ways Onyx is like Ruby, but unlike her, he isn't naïve, he isn't innocent, and he can be cruel if he believes it to be necessary, that part of him will by no means go away, ever, it's part of the character, and that isn't going to change, though it will always be tempered by his basically good soul and of course, Ruby.)<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter eleven: Hunting, part one**

**(Ruby's POV)**

**Ruby woke up in a bed, and was immediately confused to find the ceiling more than two feet away from her face, then she remembered that she wasn't at her Team's dorm, that she was in a hotel room, on a mission with Onyx. Turning her head, the crimson reaper saw him in the other bed, he was shirtless and hadn't even bothered to get under the covers, moving as quietly as she could, Ruby got out of bed and crept over to Onyx's bed.**

**Looking at the sleeping form of her boyfriend, Ruby felt a wide grin form on her face, he was so ****_cute _****when he slept, when Onyx was awake cute would be the last thing most people would think when they saw him, with his imposing stature and muscles, intense, sometimes haunted, blue eyes, wavy shoulder length black hair, the large number of forging and battle scars on his body, and generally serious, if kind, expression, and rare, dazzling smile all lent themselves to words like ****_hot, dangerous, handsome, _****and ****_sexy_****, but while he was asleep the worry, anger, and pain he constantly carried around while awake melted away, and he looked peaceful, content, and yes, cute. He was sprawled on his back diagonally across the bed, which was almost too small for him, a little drool had leaked out of the corner of his gaping mouth, and his hair was splayed around his face like an inky fan, and Ruby would be the worst liar in the world if she said that she wasn't enjoying the sight of him shirtless, his torso was solid muscle, not the ugly bulging muscles of a bodybuilder, but the flat, hard muscle of a fighter, one who used his body like others would a sword or ax, his torso was crisscrossed with scars, from burns to claw marks, forging accidents and monster fighting had left their marks on the sixteen year old, and to Ruby the scars were just reminders of his courage in battle and love of forging, they were signs of things she loved about him. Fingers lightly tracing his abs, Ruby leaned down to kiss her boyfriend awake.**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Onyx woke up to something soft and warm pressed against his mouth, he knew just from the texture and taste that Ruby was kissing him, reaching up, he placed his hand at the nape of her neck and returned the kiss without opening his eyes. When they broke apart Onyx opened his eyes and stared into her beautiful silver gaze, Ruby was blushing.**

**Onyx smiled up at her. "I could get used to this kind of wake up call."**

**Ruby's blush deepened as she straightened. "Sorry! You just looked so cute, I couldn't resist."**

**"****I'm not complaining, not even about being called cute, which I am ****_not _****by the way, I enjoyed that, a lot." Onyx swung his legs off the bed and got up. They moved Davin out of the bathroom, and Ruby showered while Onyx secured the prisoner to his bed, when Ruby came out of the bathroom, dressed in her combat clothes, her hair still slightly damp from the shower, Onyx went into the bathroom while she watched the prisoner. When he came out he was dressed in his combat attire, and Ruby had Crescent Rose clipped to her back, Onyx fastened Rise and Fall to his wrists, they returned Davin to the bathroom and cuffed him to the pipe again, then Onyx set up three motion detectors, one on the windowsill, one at the door to the room, and one at the door to the bathroom. Ruby put up the 'do not disturb' sign, and once they were in the hall, Onyx pressed a button on his Scroll to activate all three motion detectors, if the devices were tripped they would send an alert to Onyx's Scroll.**

**The couple walked out of the hotel, and started looking around for breakfast, their meet with Ozpin's contact wasn't for another three hours. So they searched until they found a small diner that served excellent waffles, Ruby got hers drenched in syrup and loaded with strawberries, with a glass of milk to drink, Onyx poured a reasonable amount of syrup onto his waffles, and had a glass of orange juice with his breakfast. Once they'd finished and paid, they wandered around for two and a half hours to make sure they weren't followed this time, then they headed over to the Joyrider's Bar, which was owned and operated by Vert Wiggins, who was a member of Professor Ozpin's network of informants.**

**The bar was dingy, smoke-filled, and patroned by large men in biker's jackets and bandanas, an empty boxing ring stood in the center of the room, the bar chatter quieted down as the two teenagers entered, Onyx saw several of the men reach inside their leather jackets for concealed weapons, Onyx and Ruby stood out like sore thumbs, or a pair of teenaged Hunters in a biker bar.**

**"****Yang would kill me if she found out I took you to a place like this, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell her when we get back, ok?" Onyx muttered down to his girlfriend, she nodded, and her nervous expression broke into a slight smile, which had been what he was aiming for.**

**Vert looked as much the part of a biker thug as his customers, he was almost as tall and broad as Onyx, which meant that he was fairly average for this crowd, his slicked back green hair and eyes like a hunted dog's completed the image, behind the bar, among the bottles of alcoholic beverages were several pro boxing trophies, the scars on the man's arms and his slightly crooked nose gave weight to the trophies, this man had been in dozens of fights, if not hundreds, also on the wall, were a pair of spiked gauntlets with gun barrels built in.**

**"****You two the Hunters that Ozpin sent?" Vert asked.**

**Onyx nodded, then they showed him the Hunter IDs they'd been issued, the big man nodded.**

**"****Kinda young, aren't you?"**

**"****I'm sixteen, she's fifteen, we're both Beacon students, so whether we're old enough or not, it's too late to worry about it."**

**"****Fair point, you got names?"**

**Ruby answered. "Ruby Rose, and Onyx Blanch."**

**"****Vert Wiggins, I used to be a Beacon kid, then my team got wiped out, and I dropped out. Save yourself some grief kids, get out while you still can, and take your friends with you."**

**"****I can't do that. Not until I've caught Derek Blanch and killed him. And even after that, I intend to keep on training to be a Huntsman, I've got other reasons that I want to become stronger for."**

**"****I can't either."**

**"****Well, don't say I didn't warn you. So, you're here because Torchwick was meeting some guy in my bar."**

**"****That 'guy' was my Uncle, Derek."**

**"****The guy you just said you wanted to kill? Well, now I know why Ozpin sent two first years for this job, unfortunately, I won't send two kids to die, I was under the impression that Ozpin would send real Hunters, not a pair of wet behind the ears puppies who have even less experience than most other first year students, he didn't even send the rest of your Team to back you two up."**

**"****Actually, we're on different Teams, I'm the leader of Team RWBY, Onyx is a member of Team VOAJ."**

**"****You mean you aren't even on the same Team? I figured you were at least partners, and could actually fight well together, not that that would have made a difference, I'm just even less likely to tell you."**

**"****How about a bet? To show you that we can infact take care of ourselves, I'll fight you in that ring, no weapons, aura or Semblances." Onyx offered.**

**Vert scoffed. "A kid like you thinks he can take Vale's Green Thunder in a boxing match? Come back in a few years, kid, you'll have a better chance of surviving that fight then."**

**Onyx was offended, but he just smirked. "So you made a fancy name for yourself in boxing, so have I, big deal. Do you follow Mistralian boxing tournaments at all, because when I was at Sanctum, I participated in a few tournaments when my schoolwork didn't get in the way, especially over the past year."**

**Vert's eyes narrowed. "What did they call you? I watched a few matches, but I never saw your face before."**

**"****I fought in a mask, it's against Sanctum rules to participate in tournaments without authorization. I was called Blackstone, ring any bells?"**

**"****You're that guy who put his last opponent in the hospital?" Onyx winced, but nodded, that wasn't one of his proudest achievements.**

**"****Alright, if you can take me in a boxing match, I'll give you your information, one round, five minute time limit, boxing only, no kicks, no holds, no weapons, or Semblances, and no gloves, aura is only to be used to absorb hits, winner is decided either by knockout, or whoever's aura is lowest when the bell rings."**

**"****Alright." Onyx nodded.**

**(Ten minutes later, Ruby's POV)**

**Ruby looked up at Onyx, who was leaning, shirtless, against the ropes of the boxing ring.**

**"****You don't have to do this, we already know roughly how many and where the bad guys are, all we need to do is go take them down." She insisted, but her boyfriend wasn't swayed.**

**"****I know we have plenty of information on the guys that are here, but we still don't know anything about what Derek and Roman were doing here personally, and we don't know what my uncle thinks he can gain from this, Vert might have overheard something that might tell us something useful." Ruby couldn't deny that, so she said nothing, and watched as his blue eyes burned with the fire they always showed when he thought about his Uncle, fury, pain and hatred showed in those balls of azure flame.**

**Ruby reached out and squeezed his hand. "Fight well."**

**Onyx looked down at her, and the angry lines in his face softened, his smile was quick and fierce as he responded. "Always."**

**(Onyx's POV)**

**Onyx "Blackstone" Blanch turned away from his girlfriend and walked into the center of the ring, his fists raised in front of him. His opponent, also shirtless, joined him in the center of the ring, his torso sported far more scars on it than Onyx's did, and his muscles were large and impressive, even to Onyx.**

**"****She your girl?" The older boxer asked, nodding at Ruby.**

**"****Yes."**

**"****Keep her safe."**

**Onyx smiled. "We met when we stopped a robbery together, I'm pretty sure 'safe' is a foreign concept for both of us, but I'll do my damndest to keep her alive."**

**Vert nodded, the two fighters tapped their fists together, as if they'd been wearing gloves. The bell rang, and Onyx just barely managed to raise both arms to block Vert's first punch, the impact nearly knocked him off his feet, and caused a massive flare of pain flood his forearms, he wouldn't be able to block another punch like that, he would need to dodge, fists raised, dancing lightly on the balls of his feet, Onyx dodged a punch, but took another one to the face, that sent him reeling, spinning on his heel, Onyx narrowly dodged another punch, and managed a jab of his own, that connected with Vert's shoulder, and did absolutely nothing, the strike hit iron hard muscles and emerald aura, Onyx danced back, and to the left, avoiding a punch, jabbing twice, then slamming an underhanded right into Vert's gut. Again, the strikes were less than effective, Onyx's eyes constantly flickered all around Vert, his ears were pricked and his mind was racing, they had four more minutes, not enough time to wear Vert down, and his punches just weren't enough to lower the older boxer's aura below the hefty chunk that the two hits Vert had landed, even if one of them was technically blocked, and without being able to use his aura in his punches made it about three times more difficult to score a KO. Onyx took another hit to the chest, he heard something crack, probably a rib, the punch revealed a slight hitch in the movement on Vert's left side, Onyx took two more blows that would have pulverized concrete, but which were dulled by flares of grey light, each movement revealed something to the inhumanly observant fighter, every old injury was a small weakness, and Vert had hundreds, Onyx's aura was running extremely low, and his body was bruised and battered. With one minute left on the clock, Onyx went on the offensive, ducking a straight right that he hadn't really seen, just sensed, Onyx delivered a sharp jab just above Vert's right elbow, hitting an old, poorly set, and long since healed break in the bone, a snapping sound told him that the attack had been successful, Onyx got right up close to Vale's Green Thunder, and hammered three precise shots into his torso, a rib broke, and Vert staggered back, his left arm held over his gut, Onyx's uppercut slammed into his temple, and the green haired boxer dropped like a sack of sand, unconscious.**

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><p><strong>(Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, I hope you like it, not exactly my best fight scene, but Onyx really is unnaturally observant, he sometimes makes Sherlock Holmes look like an amateur, and finding weak points in an opponent is just a matter of focus and seconds for him, please read, review, and enjoy.)<strong>


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